/z./3.''^^, 


^^L^  PRINCETON.  N.  J.  *^ 


Purchased   by  the    Hamill    Missionary   Fund. 


BV  3625  .S5  J6  1897 
Pierson,  Arthur  T.  1837- 

1911. 
Seven  years  in  Sierra  Leone 


SEVEN  YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 


By  Rev,  A»  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

Life-Powefj  or,  Character,  Culture  and  Conduct. 

iztno,  cloth $i.oo 

"The  book  is  an  excellent  one  to  place  in  the  hands  of 
young  people." — The  Review  of  Reviews. 

Seven  Years  in  Sierra  Leone.    The  Story  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Work  of  W.  A.  B.  Johnson.    i2mo,  cloth,    i.oo 
W.  A.  B.  Johnson  was  a  missionary  of  the  C.  M.  S.  in 
Regent's  Town  from  1816  to  1823. 
The  Acts  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Second  Edition.  1 2mo, 

cloth 75 

"  A  very  important  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the 
subject." — Christian  Work. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord,     ismo,  paper,  25c.; 

cloth    50 

Many  Infallible  Proofs:  The  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity. Revised  Edition.  i2mo,  paper,  net,  35c.  ; 
cloth 1  -oo 

In  Full  Armor ;  or,  the  Disciple  in  Conflict  with  the 
Devil.     i2mo,  paper 25 

The  Bible  in  Private  and  Public.    1 2mo,  paper,    .25 

The  Dove  in  the  Heart;  or,  the  Perfect  Peace  of  God. 
121110,  embossed  paper 20 

The  Hand  on  the  Plow;  or,  Some  Secrets  of  Service. 
i2mo,  embossed  paper 20 

The  Greatest  Work  in  the  World:  The  Evangeli- 
zation of  all  Peoples  in  the  Present  Century.  i2mo, 
paper IS 

Answered  Prayer.  A  Manual  for  Recording  Prayers 
and  their  Answers.     iSmo,  leather net,    25 

The  Crisis  of  Missions ;   or,  the  Voice  out  of  the 

Cloud.     i6mo,  paper,  35c.  ;  cloth 1.25 

Hope:  The  Last  Thing  in  the  World.  i6mo, 
decorated  boards,  20c. ;  cheaper  style,  net,  loc. ;  per 
dozen net,    i.oo 


Heming  H.  Revell  Company 

New  York:  112  Fifth  Ave. 
Chicago  :  63  Washington  St. 
Toronto  :  154  Yonge  St. 


SevenYearsin  Sierra  Leone 


THE  STORY  OF  THE   WORK  OF 

William  A.  B.Johnson 

MISSIONARY  OF  THE  CHURCH  MISSION- 
ARY SOCIETY  FROM  i8i6  TO  1823  IN  RE- 
GENT'S  TOWN,  SIERRA    LEONE,  AFRICA 


BY  THE  REV. 


Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

Author  of  "  The  Crisis  of  Missions,"  "  The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles,' 
"  Many  Infallible  Proofs,"  etc.,  etc. 


New  York       Chicago       Torokto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright,  1897,  by 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


THB  NEW  YORK  TYPE-SETTINQ  COMPANT 
THE  CAXTON   PIIESS 


TO 

MY  DEARLY  BELOVED   FRIEND 

THE  REV.   DONALD   ERASER 

OF  LIVINGSTONIA,  SOUTH  AFRICA 

WHO,    WHILE  THESE  CHAPTERS  WERE   IN   PREPARATION,  WAS 

ON    HIS    WAY    TO    THE    DARK    CONTINENT;    AND    TO   THE 

VAST    BAND    OP    STUDENT    VOLUNTEERS,    WHOM     HE 

REPRESENTS,    AND    WHO    ARE    LEADING    ON   THE 

MODERN   CRUSADE   OF   MISSIONS   FOR    "THE 

EVANGELIZATION    OF     THE    WORLD     IN 

OUR    GENERATION,"    THIS    RECORD 

OF  A  PIONEER  VOLUNTEER  AND 

HIS  GREAT  WORK  FOR  GOD 

IS    MOST   LOVINGLY 

INSCRIBED 


CONTENTS 


chap.  pagb 

Preface 7 

I.  Made  Meet  for  the  Master's  Use 13 

n.  The  Land  of  the  Shadow  op  Death 34 

III.  Rightly  Dividing  the  Word  of  Truth 54 

IV.  Sound  of  Abundance  of  Eain 75 

V.  First-fruits  unto  God .'. 94 

VI.  Floods  upon  the  Dry  Ground 114 

VII.  The  Eegions  Beyond 139 

VIII.  In  the  Furnace  of  Affliction 163 

IX.  The  Cloud  of  Witnesses 182 

X.  At  the  Desired  Haven 198 

Appendices ,,,........ 215 


PREFACE 

There  is  an  old  story  of  a  reed-lute  which, 
In  its  original  rude,  crude,  native  simplicity, 
gave  forth  notes  of  unusual  sweetness.  Some 
one,  thinking  to  improve  it,  varnished  and 
gilded  it.  It  henceforth  lost  its  peculiar 
power.  It  shone  with  the  glitter  of  gold,  but 
it  no  longer  breathed  the  sweet  purity  of 
melody  as  before. 

To  preserve  the  simplicity  of  a  little  child, 
amid  the  maturity  of  manhood  and  the  dig- 
nity of  increasing  responsibility  and  enlarg- 
ing usefulness,  is  of  foremost  consequence, 
but  it  represents  a  gem  as  rare  as  it  is  radiant. 
It  has  been  said  that,  while  human  develop- 
ment is  from  the  cradle  onward,  the  highest 
Christ-life  is  from  the  cross  backward  to  the 
cradle :  it  is  the  man  becoming  a  babe  and,  in 
a  good  sense,  remaining  a  babe,  never  losing 

7 


8  PREFACE 

the  childlike  spirit;  for  it  is  the  little  ones 
that  get  the  caresses,  held  closest  to  the  bosom 
of  the  Father,  cherished  and  nurtured  in  fon- 
dhng  arms. 

Some  twenty  or  more  years  ago  I  came 
across  an  anonymous  memoir  of  William  A. 
B.  Johnson,  now  out  of  print.  It  was  a  stray 
copy,  and  in  more  than  one  sense  it  was  a 
rare  book.  It  impressed  me  then  as,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  remarkable  story  of  seven 
years  of  missionary  labor  that  I  had  ever 
read;  and  now,  after  a  score  of  years  of  re- 
search into  missionary  history  and  biography, 
that  judgment  is  unhesitatingly  reaffirmed. 

Such  a  narrative  should  not  remain  out  of 
reach  of  those  who  delight  in  the  study  of 
missions.  It  is  one  of  God's  witnesses,  and 
its  voice  ought  not  to  be  silent.  Hence  this 
humble  effort  to  give  Mr.  Johnson's  work  and 
witness  a  wider  hearing  by  reproducing  the 
essential  features  of  the  narrative. 

The  original  memoir  ai)pears  to  have  been 
hastily  prepared,  and  consists  almost  wholly 
of  extracts  from  the  missionary's  diary.  "While 
there  is,  therefore,  in  it  the  continuity  of  time 


PREFACE  9 

and  chronological  order,  there  is  no  logical 
arrangement  of  matter,  no  grouping  of  events 
in  classes,  and  hence  no  effective  contrasts 
such  as  show  at  a  glance  the  wonderful  re- 
sults wrought  by  the  gospel.  The  aim  in  this 
recasting  of  the  narrative  has  been  so  to  re- 
arrange the  matter  contained  in  the  memoir 
as  to  enable  the  reader  to  see  as  in  a  panorama 
the  progress  of  the  gospel  triumphs  in  the 
most  disheartening  and  desperate  field  which, 
eighty  years  ago,  defied  missionary  conquest. 
Much  that  the  original  journal  of  Johnson 
and  the  former  memoir  contained  is  here 
omitted,  as  either  lacking  relevancy  or  in- 
volving repetition.  The  story  must  speak  for 
itself,  but  it  would  be  incredible  were  not  the 
facts  too  abundantly  attested  to  allow  of 
doubt.  Nothing  is  more  noticeable  than  the 
simple,  humble,  self-distrustful  spirit  which 
Mr.  Johnson  preserved  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
Perhaps  this  was  the  grand  secret  of  his  suc- 
cess. The  lute  never  took  on  the  fatal  varnish 
and  gilding  of  self-sufficiency  and  self -glory. 
He  never  ceased  to  be  a  little  child ;  he  waited 
to  be  led,  to  be  taught,  to  be  upheld,  uplifted, 


10  PREFACE 

upborne ;  even  success  never  elated  or  inflated 
him ;  and  the  consequence  was  that  Grod  could 
be  glorified  in  him  as  in  few  others,  for  he 
never  himself  got  in  the  way  of  the  cross. 
Always  behind  it,  never  before  it,  the  cruci- 
fied Christ  was  exalted,  and  proved  His  words 
that  if  He  be  lifted  up  He  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Him. 

As  J.  Hudson  Taylor  well  says,  while  some 
are  anxious  to  be  "  successors  of  the  apostles," 
it  may  be  well  to  seek  to  be  successors  of  the 
Samaritan  woman,  who,  while  they  went  for 
food,  but  brought  back  no  inquiring  soul,  for- 
got herself,  her  wants,  and  her  water-pot,  in 
her  zeal  to  lead  other  sinners  to  her  Saviour's 
feet. 

The  story  of  these  seven  years  in  Sierra 
Leone  illustrates  the  great  truth  that  to  be 
grandly  useful  we  need  only  to  surrender  our- 
selves wholly  to  God's  hands.  Like  Mrs. 
Stowe  in  the  writing  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin," 
Johnson  had  no  thought  of  doing  any  great 
thing.  Ho  did  not  wish  to  be  famous.  A 
door  opened  before  him,  and  he  entered  it. 
A  work  was  before  him,  and  he  undertook  it 


PREFACE  11 

for  Grod,  or  rather  he  consented  to  have  God 
do  all  the  work,  feeling  himself  to  be  only  a 
tool,  a  vessel,  in  the  Master's  hand.  And,  as 
God  always  does  when  He  finds  a  perfectly 
willing  instrument,  He  wrought  mightily 
through  him,  and  compelled  all  who  saw  it 
to  confess,  "  Surely  this  is  the  finger  of  God." 

It  has  been  well  said  of  another  book  writ- 
ten on  Africa  that  it  supplies  "  a  text  for  a 
scoffer."  This  narrative,  on  the  contrary,  fur- 
nishes a  whole  volume  of  apologetics  and  evi- 
dences for  a  true  believer. 

The  author  of  this  present  volume  has  no 
higher  desire  than  that  the  perusal  of  this 
pathetic  and  romantic  story  of  a  heroic  life 
may  prompt  many  to  follow  in  the  same  path 
of  consecrated  service,  and  that  it  may  prove 
a  special  encouragement  and  inspiration  to 
the  great  body  of  Student  Volunteers  in  the 
new  missionary  crusade. 

Aethue  T.  Pieeson. 

1127  Dean  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1897. 


SEVEN  YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 


CHAPTER  I 

MADE  MEET  FOR  THE   MASTER'S   USE 

The  preparation  of  the  instrument  is  the 
first  step  in  service.  Aristotle  says  in  effect 
that  without  some  mixture  of  madness  there 
is  no  great  genius,  and  that  notliing  grand  or 
superior  is  ever  spoken,  except  by  an  agitated 
souL 

There  is  a  truth  akin  to  this  in  spiritual  life. 
Stagnation  is  death.  Without  action  and 
warmth  there  is  no  power.  The  genius  of 
goodness,  the  energy  of  service,  are  always  ac- 
companied with  the  heart-heat  of  holy  ardor, 
fervor,  zeal,  often  with  a  fanaticism  that  cold 
critics  stigmatize  as  madness;  a  passion  for 

13 


14  SEVEN    YEARS   IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

souls  that  keeps  the  whole  being  in  a  sublime 
agitation  makes  inaction  more  wearisome 
than  the  most  exhausting  labors.  "  We  must 
not  be  afraid,"  said  the  lamented  Keith  Fal- 
coner, "  of  being  ridiculed  as  eccentric.  Ec- 
centric is  out  of  center,  and  he  who  is  revolv- 
ing about  Christ  and  concentric — in  center — 
as  to  Him,  will  be  eccentric — out  of  center — as 
to  the  world." 

Of  these  principles  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  a  unique  example  and  illustration.  He 
was  strangely  moved  by  a  mighty  j^assion  for 
Christ  and  for  men — divinely  agitated,  for 
God's  angel  stirred  the  pool  of  his  being ;  but 
the  agitation  was  the  sign  of  healing  virtue 
in  the  waters,  and  the  man  so  moved  to  his 
depths  became  a  Bethesda  to  those  who  were 
sick  and  deformed  and  crippled  by  sin.  Yet 
so  manifest  was  it  that  in  him  God  had  chosen 
the  poor,  weak,  despised  nothing,  in  human 
eyes,  to  bring  to  naught  the  forms  and  forces 
of  evil,  that  no  one  was  either  able  or  disposed 
to  dispute  that  the  excellency  of  the  power 
was  of  God  and  not  of  men.  This  is  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  giving  prominence  to  this 


MADE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        15 

brief  story  of  seven  years:  it  furnishes  so 
singularly  luminous  an  example  of  the  readi- 
ness of  an  omnipotent  God  to  display  His  own 
strength  and  grace  through  an  instrument 
manifestly  too  impotent  to  work  such  results 
in  his  own  might. 

It  is  now  about  eighty  years  ago  when  a 
young  man  from  Hanover,  Germany,  applied 
to  the  Church  Missionary  Society  for  service 
in  the  mission  field.  He  desired,  with  his 
wife,  to  engage  in  teaching.  The  application 
led  to  inquiry  about  them  and  an  interview 
with  them.  Both  applicants  impressed  the 
committee  favorably;  their  personal  charac- 
ter, views  of  truth,  and  singleness  of  aim  com- 
mended them  to  the  judgment  of  the  society, 
and  they  were  willing  to  give  themselves  en- 
tirely to  the  work  of  God.  William  Augustine 
Bernard  Johnson  was  the  name  of  the  man, 
whose  brief  career  is  now  to  be  outlined ;  and 
so  satisfactory  were  the  results  of  the  commit- 
tee's investigations  that  he  and  his  wife  were 
at  once  engaged  to  go  as  schoolmaster  and 
schoolmistress  to  Africa,  so  soon  as  proper 
instruction  had  been  given  them. 


16  SE^EN    YEARS   IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Johnson  was  then  working  in  a  sugar-re- 
finery in  London,  and  the  prompt  acceptance 
of  him  on  the  part  of  the  wise  brethren  of  the 
committee  proves  that  something  in  the  man 
must  have  won  for  him  golden  opinions.  It 
was  certainly  neither  his  looks  nor  his  learn- 
ing, for  he  was  plain  in  person  and  com- 
paratively uncultured.  But  there  was  a 
transparent  guilelessness  and  earnestness  of 
spirit  which  revealed  itself  from  the  first  and 
which  marked  the  applicant  as  no  common 
man. 

Some  three  years  previous  to  this  time  he 
had  been  brought  to  the  acceptance  of  Jesus  as 
a  Saviour  by  a  somewhat  remarkable  dealing 
of  God.  He  had  been  left  to  peculiar  destitu- 
tion, was  ill  clad  and  half  starved.  His  wife 
was  in  bed,  weak  and  weeping  for  hunger,  and 
this  doubled  his  distress.  He  cast  himself  on 
the  bed  and  tossed  in  agony  from  side  to  side, 
feeling  utterly  friendless  and  forsaken,  and 
not  knowing  how  to  get  relief. 

He  had  been  taught,  when  a  child  of  eight 
years,  by  his  schoolmaster,  to  repeat  on  Mon- 
day mornings  something  of  the  sermon  he  had 


MADE  MEET  FOR   THE  MASTER'S  USE        17 

heard  the  day  before ;  and  a  text  which  had 
thus  long  been  fixed  in  memory  now  recurred 
to  his  mind : 

"  Call  upon  Me  in  the  day  of  trouble ; 
I  will  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  glorify  Me." 

That  promise  had  obtained  its  peculiar  fas- 
tening in  his  mind  in  a  somewhat  curious  way. 
When  he  repeated  it  to  his  schoolmaster  he 
was  rebuked  because  all  he  could  recall  was  a 
verse  of  Scripture,  and  so  that  circumstance 
rooted  it  in  his  recollection.  And  now,  after 
seventeen  years,  it  came  forcibly  to  his  mind : 
"  Call  upon  Me !  "  "  Surely,"  he  said,  "  this  is 
a  *  day  of  trouble.'  Will  He  deliver  me — me, 
who  have  sinned  so  against  Him  %  And  now 
may  I,  indeed,  call  upon  God  to  deliver  me ! " 
As  though  the  great  white  throne  were  set  up 
and  the  "  books  were  opened,"  he  seemed  to 
read  the  dark  record  of  all  his  sins.  He  was 
in  despair.  No  prospect  here  but  want  and 
woe,  and  no  prospect  beyond  but  a  meeting 
with  an  angry  God. 

The  next  morning  he  went  to  work  at  the 
distillery,  where  he  received  the  meager  pit- 
tance of  eighteen  shillings  sterling  a  week; 


18  SEVEN    YE.4RS   IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

and,  as  he  afterward  confessed,  lie  went  with 
the  feelings  of  a  madman.  When  breakfast- 
hour  came,  and  the  other  workmen  left  for 
home,  he  did  the  same,  not  expecting  a  meal, 
but  only  because  to  stay  there  would  cause 
suspicion. 

His  wife  met  him  at  the  door,  smiling,  and 
led  him  to  an  ample  morning  meal.  Judge 
his  astonishment  to  learn  that  a  lady  from 
India,  who  had  taken  a  house  near  by,  had  ap- 
plied to  his  wife  for  some  one  to  stay  with  her, 
and  had  given  her  four  shillings,  bidding  her 
put  the  house  in  order,  and  promising  her  fur- 
ther payments  for  her  service. 

The  hungry  man  was  amazed  at  the  good- 
ness of  God,  who  had  granted  so  merciful  a 
deliverance,  even  in  advance  of  being  called 
upon ;  but  his  load  of  sin  seemed  only  heavier, 
and  he  tried  to  pray,  but  seemed  only  to  be 
adding  sin  to  sin.  In  a  vague  hope  of  finding 
help  in  his  despairing  state,  he  went  on  the 
Friday  following  to  a  prayer-meeting  held 
in  the  Savoy  German  chui'ch.  There  a  Mr. 
Lehman,  a  ]\Ioravian  missionary,  gave  an  ex- 
hortation, telling  of  Jesus  and  His  love  for 


MADE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        19 

sinners,  and  how  He  came  into  the  world  to 
save  them.  Like  young  Spurgeon  in  the  Prim- 
itive Methodist  meeting-house  in  Colchester, 
— when  the  minister,  preaching  on  the  text, 
"  Look  unto  Me,  and  be  ye  saved,"  seemed  to 
be  preaching  right  at  him, — Johnson  felt  that 
the  message  was  for  him,  and  he  cried  to 
Jesus  for  mercy.  He  found  he  could  pray, 
and  believed  that  his  sins  were  forgiven,  and 
joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  seemed  to 
be  pouring  a  new  flood  into  his  soul. 

It  was  a  marked  conversion,  and  brought 
an  assurance  and  confidence  of  his  own 
saved  state,  that  he  was  a  child  of  God,  which 
is  essential  for  all  true  work  for  Christ.  No 
man  is  fitted  to  guide  a  sinner  to  Christ  who 
does  not  himself  know  the  way,  both  doc- 
trinally  and  experimentally.  In  all  preaching 
the  one  commanding  qualification — the  very 
anointing  of  divine  authority — is  found  in 
experience.  We  are  witnesses,  and  witness  is 
limited  by  personal  knowledge.  The  deeper 
the  hold  on  Christ,  the  mightier  the  grip  on 
souls.  Johnson  had  this  basis  of  all  qualifi- 
cations :  a  clear,  unmistakable  conversion,  an 


20  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

experience  of  gi*ace ;  and  was  thus  furnished 
with  what  Dr.  Judson  considered  the  great, 
first,  indispensable  requisite  for  a  missionary, 
namely,  a  firm  conviction  and  consciousness 
of  his  own  conversion.  He  at  once  felt,  like  Dr. 
Duff,  a  great  desire  to  be  the  means  of  conver- 
sion to  his  fellow-sinners,  which  he  believed 
must  be  the  case  with  every  other  true-hearted 
disciple.  To  him  the  experience  of  saving 
grace  impelled  and  compelled  a  testimony. 
He  began  with  his  wife,  whom  he  undertook 
to  tell  of  his  own  renewal  and  to  persuade  to 
accept  Christ ;  but  he  found  that  only  God  can 
bring  a  soul  out  of  darkness  into  light.  He 
then  turned  to  his  fellow- workmen,  trying  the 
same  experiment,  with  the  same  result,  being 
met  by  some  of  them  with  scornful  laughter 
as  though  he  were  a  fool,  or  by  others  with 
hateful  sneers  as  though  he  were  a  h>T)ocrite. 
His  first  efforts  at  faithful  witnessing  for 
Christ  met  only  apathy,  if  not  antipathy,  yet 
even  persecution  did  not  drive  him  to  silence. 
The  demand  being  made  upon  him  for  Sun- 
day work,  which  he  could  not  conscientiously 
meet,  he  left  his  situation  for  another,  as  ware- 


M^DE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        21 

houseman  in  a  sugar-honse  in  Prince's  Place, 
Cable  Street.  He  then  joined  the  Savoy 
church,  and  was  wont  to  go  with  his  wife  on 
Sunday  evenings  to  Zion  Chapel.  By  invita- 
tion of  a  young  man,  he  went  one  Wednesday 
evening  to  Pell  Street  Chapel,  where  on  the 
Sunday  evening  following  he  heard  a  Mr. 
Stodhardt  preach,  whom  he  was  able  to  un- 
derstand better  than  any  other  Christian  min- 
ister whom  he  had  hitherto  heard.  His  text 
on  that  night  was,  "  There  is  no  peace,  saith 
my  God,  to  the  wicked."  He  had  never  be- 
fore heard  so  much  of  the  Saviour  of  sinners, 
and  was  so  attracted  by  this  simple  gospel 
message  that  henceforth  he  and  his  wife  reg- 
ularly attended  at  this  place  of  worship.  His 
half-informed  mind  staggered  much  at  the 
doctrine  of  free  and  saving  grace,  but  after- 
ward, under  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
these  same  truths  became  the  staple  of  his 
whole  ministry. 

About  the  month  of  November,  1813,  in  a 
meeting  at  the  chapel  in  Fetter  Lane,  where 
missionaries  were  addressed,  Johnson  was 
present ;  and  there  more  than  ever  before  he 


22  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

realized  the  high  privilege  and  calling  of  a 
Christian  disciple  and  the  misery  and  wretch- 
edness of  the  benighted  heathen,  and  the 
yearning  to  tell  them  of  Christ  burst  into  a 
new  flame.  At  first  he  felt  that  he  himself 
could  never  go,  having  no  real  ability  or 
education,  and  encumbered  with  an  uncon- 
verted wife ;  but  the  constraint  of  love  was 
upon  him,  and  he  offered  himself  to  the  Lord 
just  as  he  was,  saying,  "  Here  am  I ;  send  me." 
That  night  he  watered  his  couch  with  tears, 
turning  his  face  to  the  wall  and  communing 
with  the  Lord  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  heart. 

No  disciple  ever  takes  his  stand  for  God 
without  finding  Satan  at  his  right  hand  to 
resist  him,  and  it  seemed  as  though  the  devH 
were  heaping  up  damp  rubbish  and  wet  earth 
to  quench  the  flame  of  holy  desires.  All  sorts 
of  discouragements  and  difficulties  were  piled 
up  before  him :  he  feared  the  society  would 
not  accept  a  married  man,  an  ignorant  man, 
a  newly  converted  man.  Such  suggestions 
di-agged  him  down  into  great  darkness,  and 
he  even  became  careless  and  prayerless. 

Again  Mr.  Stodhardt  was  used  of  God  to 


M/iDE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        23 

bring  him  relief.  In  a  sermon  lie  asked, "  Are 
any  of  you  in  darkness  ?  If  so,  search  your- 
selves, for  something  is  the  reason  why  God 
hides  His  face."  This  remark  compelled  close 
examination,  and  Johnson  saw  that  ever  since 
he  discouraged  the  desire  for  missionary  work 
he  had  been  sinking  into  deeper  gloom.  He 
was  constrained  to  cry  out,  "  Yes,  that  is  it, 
that  is  it !  With  Thee  nothing  is  impossible. 
Lord,  send  me !  send  me !  "  Thus  the  flame 
of  missionary  zeal  was  rekindled,  and  he  was 
brought  into  closer  relations  with  God,  and 
every  Christian  grace  seemed  once  more  to 
flourish. 

A  new  yearning  for  the  conversion  of  his 
wife  possessed  him,  that  together  they  might 
join  the  church  In  Pell  Street,  which  was 
close  by  his  lodgings  and  had  become  such 
a  Pool  of  Siloam  in  his  spiritual  blindness. 
Again  Mr.  Stodhardt's  message  proved  a  word 
from  God.  One  of  his  remarks  was  that  if  we 
continue  to  pray  for  any  particular  blessing, 
in  faith,  it  will  surely  be  granted.*  This 
stimulated  more  importunate  and  believing 

*  1  John  V.  15,  16. 


24  SEI/EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

intercession  in  his  wife's  behalf,  and  strength- 
ened his  confidence  that  a  prayer-hearing  God 
would  single  her  out  for  a  special  blessing. 
Unbelief,  always  so  persistent  and  subtle,  for 
a  time  regained  control,  and  again  a  horror  of 
deep  darkness  seemed  upon  him.  But  the 
grace  of  God  was  so  exceeding  abundant  that, 
while  yet  in  this  unbelieving  state,  his  prayer 
for  his  wife  was  answered;  for,  while  as  a 
mere  spectator  she  was  looking  on  as  the  little 
band  of  disciples  surrounded  the  table  of  the 
Lord  at  Pell  Street  Chapel,  she  was  suddenly 
convinced  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment. 

Her  husband  felt  that  he  had  now  come  into 
unclouded  day.  But  so  strangely  successful 
are  Satan's  de\4ces  that,  shortly  after,  an- 
other pall  of  gloom  overspread  him :  his  heart 
seemed  as  ice  for  coldness,  and  as  stone  or 
steel  for  hardness ;  he  felt  himself  insensible 
■  to  all  divine  impressions,  and  could  not  even 
pray. 

Few  human  experiences  are  more  remark- 
able as  proofs  of  God's  direct  care  over  us 
than  what  may  be  called  gracious  providences. 


MADE  MEET  FOR   THE  MASTER'S   USE        25 

At  critical  times  such  relief  conies,  from 
most  unexpected  sources,  as  demonstrates 
that  He  who  alone  knows  our  heart-sickness 
and  faintness  has  sent  us  the  exact  medicine 
for  our  ills.  For  example,  how  often  Mr. 
Stodhardt  proved  himself  the  messenger  from 
above,  the  angel  of  the  church,  the  channel 
of  a  divine  communication  to  this  benighted 
soul;  in  repeated  instances,  though  himself 
unconscious  of  the  fact,  applying  the  balm  of 
Gilead  to  the  sore  heart  of  Johnson !  How 
was  it — if  we  leave  out  God  as  the  controlling 
and  guiding  power — that  at  this  very  time  he 
was  led  to  expound  the  first  seven  verses  of 
Paul's  first  letter  to  Timothy,  which  are  the 
only  words  specially  addressed  to  such  as 
"desire  the  ofiice  of  a  bishop"?  And  how 
was  it  that  he  was  led  to  say  that,  when  once 
a  yearning  is  awakened  in  the  heart  for  ser- 
vice in  the  ministry  or  any  other  particular 
calling,  if  that  yearning  he  enkindled  hy  the 
Spirit  of  God,  it  will  prove  a  fire  not  easily 
quenched,  and  after  every  attempt  to  dampen 
or  put  it  out  will  again  burst  into  flame ;  in 
other  words,  a  divinely  created  yearning  can- 


2G  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

not  be  silenced,  but  will  not  rest  until  it  is  ac- 
complished. What  wonder  that  a  word  so  in 
season  was  an  arrow  in  the  heart  of  Johnson ! 
He  felt  that  so  far  as  he  had  resisted  this  de- 
sire to  be  a  missionary  he  had  quenched  the 
Spirit ;  and  this  conviction  at  first  made  the 
darkness  deeper,  until  one  day  a  promise  of 
God  brought  again  the  day-dawn :  "  My  gi'ace 
is  sufficient  for  thee :  for  My  strength  is  made 
perfect  in  weakness." 

He  now  sought  Mr.  Stodhardt  and  poured 
out  his  soul  to  him,  and  was  advised  by  him 

to  go  to  a  Mr.  A ,  who  often  met  with  the 

committee  of  the  London  Missionary  Society. 
He  resolved  to  follow  this  counsel,  and  that 
night,  also,  fully  to  acquaint  his  wife  with  his 
strong  desire  after  the  mission  field.  Like 
Carey,  he  was  met  with  a  rebuff;  she  replied 
that  she  could  not  think  of  such  a  course  for 
herself,  preferring  to  stay  where  she  was,  but 
that  if  he  wanted  to  go  she  would  not  keep 
him.  Thus  a  new  discouragement  disheart- 
ened him ;  but  he  gave  himself  unto  prayer, 
and  so  quickly  did  the  answer  come  that  but 
a  few  days  later  he  found  his  wife  moved  by 


MADE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        27 

as  great  a  desire  as  himself  to  go  into  the 
world  field. 

While  waiting  to  hear  the  result  of  Mr. 
A 's  promised  interposition  with  the  com- 
mittee of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  he 
was  told  by  Mr.  Diiiing,  who  was  in  the  em- 
ploy of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  that 
they  would  send  out  with  himself  another  la- 
borer, and  again  hope  was  kindled  that  he 
might  be  chosen  as  Mr.  Diiring's  companion. 
A  conversation  followed  with  Mr.  Pratt,  who 
brought  the  matter  before  the  committee; 
and  about  a  fortnight  later  both  Mr.  John- 
son and  his  wife  met  the  committee  and  were 
accepted,  as  has  been  recorded  in  the  pre- 
vious pages. 

And  now  Johnson  fell  into  a  new  snare. 
His  wife  became  ill,  and  the  temptation  to 
despair  because  of  his  conscious  inability  and 
incompetency  once  more  oppressed  him ;  and 
yet  again  his  pastor  was  the  unconscious  in- 
strument of  Grod  in  lifting  him  out  of  the  hor- 
rible pit  of  despondency,  by  a  sermon  on  these 
words:  "Because  the  foolishness  of  God  is 
wiser  than  men ;  and  the  weakness  of  God  is 


28  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

stronger  than  men."*  As  though  to  em- 
phasize the  fitness  of  his  message,  Mr.  Stod- 
hardt,  in  connection  with  this  discourse, 
chanced  to  mention  a  fellow-student,  who 
after  three  years  at  college  could  not  so  much 
as  learn  English  grammar,  and  who  neverthe- 
less was  greatly  used  as  a  preacher  of  the 
good  news. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  even  with  such 
support,  Johnson  sank  down  again  into  the 
miry  clay  of  doubt,  and  so  deeply  that  he 
began  to  question  whether  he  was  himself  a 
saved  man.  Given  over  for  a  time  to  that 
fatal  folly  of  morbid  introspection,  he  kept 
searching  into  himself,  as  though  anything 
but  despondency  could  come  from  within, 
unless  it  were  a  confidence  even  more  delusive. 
The  great  Adversary  again  tempted  him  to 
give  up  at  once  and  forever  all  thoughts  of 
mission  work,  and  so  to  announce  to  the  com- 
mittee of  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
But  in  a  dream  Grod  spoke  to  him,  and  that 
precious  promise  which  once  before  had 
proved  a  rock  beneath  his  feet — "My  grace 

*  1  Cor.  i.  25. 


MADE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        29 

is  sufficient  for  thee" — became  to  this  lowly- 
disciple  what  it  had  been  to  the  great  apostle 
to  the  Gentiles,  a  firm  standing-place  and 
resting-place.  God  so  powerfully  impressed 
on  his  mind  His  own  all-sufficiency  as  to  re- 
move absolutely  all  his  fear.  Let  not  the 
reader  fail  to  note  how  conspicuous  was  the 
intervention  of  God's  inspired  Word  at  every 
crisis  of  Johnson's  experience.  Whenever  de- 
liverance came,  it  came  through  the  infallible 
Book,  and  so  it  was  to  the  close  of  life.  He 
never  fell  into  any  snare  without  finding  re- 
lief and  release  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  both 
for  himself  and  for  others.  How  true  it  is : 
"  The  entrance  of  Thy  words  giveth  light " ! 

A  new  doubt  now  arose,  with  regard  to  the 
place  of  his  destination.  There  was  in  the 
entire  world  field  no  darker  spot  than  Sierra 
Leone.  Mary  Lyon  used  to  say  to  the  girls 
at  Holyoke,  "  If  you  would  be  true  servants 
of  God,  be  ready  to  go  where  no  one  else 
will;"  and  it  was  just  such  a  test  which  was 
now  applied  to  this  humble  believer.  He  was 
warned  that  the  district  of  the  Dark  Continent 
for  which  he  was  designated  represented  the 


30  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

intensity  of  its  darkness,  the  worst  of  its 
habitations  of  iniquity  and  cruelty.  The  final 
question,  the  supreme  test,  now  to  be  applied 
to  him  was :  Are  you  willing  to  go  where  no 
one  else  will  ? 

Thus  far  in  this  volunteer's  experience 
there  had  been  little  else  than  a  series  of  dis- 
appointments, discouragements,  and  delays. 
Is  there  no  lesson  to  be  learned  from  Grod's 
strange  way  of  dealing  with  this  His  chosen 
servant  ?  Has  it  not  been  a  common  experi- 
ence of  those  whom  God  calls  to  and  fits  for 
some  special  service,  that  at  the  very  outset 
they  are  severely  tested  as  to  the  sincerity 
of  their  self-surrender  and  the  persistency  of 
their  purpose  ? 

When  Christ  said  to  Simon  Peter,  "Whither 
I  go,  thou  canst  not  follow  Me  now,"  he  im- 
petuously and  impatiently  replied,  "Lord, 
why  cannot  I  follow  thee  nowf  I  am  ready 
to  go  with  Thee  both  to  prison  and  to  death. 
I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  Thy  sake."  Jesus 
calmly  answered :  "  Wilt  thou  lay  down  thy 
life  for  My  sake  ?  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
thee,  The  cock  shall  not  crow  this  night, 


MADE  MEET  FOR    THE  MASTER'S   USE        31 

till  thou  hast  thrice  denied  that  thou  know- 
est  Me." 

Here  was  a  disciple  that  loved  Jesus,  and 
felt  both  desirous  to  go  anywhere  with  Him 
and  ready  to  follow  Him  at  risk  of  imprison- 
ment and  death .  He  was  sincere,  but  he  did  not 
know  himself ;  and  even  after  this  awful  warn- 
ing he  was  still  so  self-complacent  and  self- 
confident  that  he  only  the  more  vehemently 
declared  his  devotion  to  his  Master  at  any 
cost.  But  the  omniscient  eye  saw  Satan  at 
that  moment  preparing  for  his  unwary  feet  a 
snare  into  which  he  would  fall — saw  that  he 
would  commit  a  sin  of  denial  next  in  guilt  to 
Judas's  betrayal,  and  that  his  faith  would 
utterly  fail  but  for  his  Master's  prayers. 

The  warning  is  plain.  A  sincere  and  ear- 
nest disciple,  who  feels  ready  to  go  at  once, 
anywhere,  at  any  risk,  for  his  Lord's  sake,  may 
be  impetuous  in  spirit  and  impatient  of  divine 
delays.  Perhaps  the  Lord  sees  that  he  does  not 
know  himself,  that  he  needs  the  test  of  patient 
waiting.  It  may  be,  only  a  lapse  into  sin  can 
show  him  how  weak  and  wiKul  and  wayward 
he  is;   that  he  must,  in  a  sense,  be  "con- 


32  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

verted "  before  lie  can  be  used  to  strengthen 
his  brethren ;  that  perhaps  he  is  not  yet  filled 
with  the  Spirit  and  must  tarry  until  he  is 
endued  with  power  from  on  high. 

There  is  singular  pathos  in  those  words, 
"Whither  I  go," — to  Gethsemane's  passion 
and  Golgotha's  cross, — "  thou  canst  not  follow 
Me  now ;  but  thou  shalt  follow  Me  afterward." 
Not  now.  God's  time  may  not  yet  be  fully 
come,  but  our  time  is  always  ready.  Yet  is 
it  not  true  that  we  are  least  ready  when  we 
think  we  are  most  ready  f  Resolute,  indeed, 
but  often  in  the  crises  of  temptation  resolu- 
tion snaps  like  the  green  withes  or  new  ropes 
which  bound  Samson ;  vehement,  indeed,  but 
much  vehemence  is  the  mere  movement  of 
fleshly  energy,  not  the  momentum  of  spirit- 
ual force  and  power.  Carlyle  quaintly  says : 
"  Vehemence  is  not  strength.  A  man  is  not 
strong  who  takes  convulsion-fits,  though  six 
men  cannot  hold  him  then." 

The  subsequent  career  of  this  missionary 
shows  that  he  needed  just  this  discipline  of 
delay.  He  who  would  follow  Christ  must 
wait  His  beck  and  bidding,  His  time  and 


MADE  MEET  FOR   THE  MASTER'S  USE        33 

way,  and  wait  also  for  his  own  full  testing 
and  training.  When  we  confidently  feel  ready 
for  heroic  martyi'dom,  He  may  see  us  on 
the  verge  of  cowardly  denial  or  betrayal.  At 
every  stage  of  service  we  must  leave  ourselves 
wholly  in  His  hands.  Even  the  chosen  vessel 
needs  cleansing  and  filling — it  may  be,  needs 
breaking  and  remaking — before  it  will  be  "  a 
vessel  unto  honor,  sanctified,  and  meet  for  the 
Master's  use,  and  prepared  unto  every  good 
work." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LAND  OF  THE  SHADOW  OF  DEATH 

That  must  have  been  a  weirdly  awful  scene 
when,  in  May,  1890,  Henry  Varley,  the  evan- 
gelist, preached  to  a  throng  of  five  thousand 
people  in  the  vast  crater  of  Mount  Eden,  New 
Zealand. 

Johnson's  appointed  field  of  labor  was  a 
crater;  not  a  burnt-out  crater,  but  the  very 
mouth  of  a  burning,  seething,  restless  hell  of 
iniquity.  As  this  small  section  of  western 
Africa  must  so  prominently  figure  in  this 
biographical  sketch,  it  is  well  to  rehearse  the 
peculiar  circumstances  under  which  Sierra 
Leone  was  settled. 

Its  name  is  due  to  the  fancied  resemblance 
of  the  contour  of  its  hills  to  a  lion's  form.  In 
1787  a  settlement  was  projected  by  Grranville 
Sharp  and  other  philanthropists,  in  order  to 

34 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SH/IDOIV   OF  DEATH     35 

provide  a  suitable  home  for  destitute  negroes 
from  different  parts  of  the  world,  as  well  as 
to  establish  a  center  whence  a  Christian  civ- 
ilization might  reach  out  into  other  parts  of 
the  Dark  Continent.  At  this  time  there  were 
in  London  a  large  number  -of  blacks  whom  it 
was  desired  to  remove  from  the  city  for  the 
relief  of  the  city  itself,  and  it  was  thought 
that  Sierra  Leone  would  afford  a  good  colonial 
settlement  for  the  several  purposes  in  view. 
Four  hundred  and  seventy  destitute  negroes 
were  removed  thereto  in  1787  by  the  London 
committee.  Eleven  hundred  and  ninety-six 
others  were  sent  there  from  Nova  Scotia  in 
1790,  the  northern  climate  proving  too  severe 
for  them.  The  population  was  further  in- 
creased by  other  transportations  of  people  of 
color,  and,  after  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade, 
in  1807,  slaves  captured  by  the  British  cruisers 
were  put  ashore  there  and  settled.  In  1789 
the  settlement  had  been  plundered  and  de- 
stroyed by  a  band  of  pirates.  Sharp,  Wilber- 
force,  and  others  had  then  formed  the  Sierra 
Leone  Company,  and  Freetown  became  the 
center  of  the  colony.   The  inhabitants  suffered 


36  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

greatly  from  fever,  and  the  French  in  1794 
made  Sierra  Leone  the  scene  of  further  in- 
roads and  phmders.  After  the  reestablish- 
nient  of  the  colony  it  was  finally  transferred, 
in  1808,  to  the  British  government,  since 
which  time  it  has  steadily  advanced. 

This  was  the  field  of  labor  to  which  William 
Johnson  was  to  go,  and  it  is  not  strange  if,  as 
he  thought  of  the  scene  of  his  labors,  it  pre- 
sented little  attraction.  He  could  not  forget 
that  there  was  the  dumping-ground  for  the 
world's  refuse  population,  ignorant  and  de- 
graded people,  rescued  from  the  holds  of 
slave-ships,  or  exported  from  overcrowded 
cities  like  London,  where  they  had  become  an 
intolerable  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  com- 
munity. As  Johnson  thought  of  such  a  hope- 
less field  of  work,  a  darkness  that  might  be  felt 
seemed  to  envelop  him.  But  once  again  there 
came  to  him  light  through  a  promise  of  God. 

"I  will  bring  the  blind  by  a  way  that  they  knew  not ; 

I  will  lead  them  in  paths  they  have  not  known  : 

I  will  make  darkness  light  before  them, 

And  crooked  things  straight. 
These  things  will  I  do  nnto  them,  and  not  forsake  them."  * 

*  Isaiah  xlii.  16. 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOiV  OF  DEATH     37 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  March,  1816,  John- 
son and  his  wife  embarked  on  board  the  Eclio^ 
sailing  for  Sierra  Leone,  and  the  missionary 
career  of  this  devoted  servant  of  God  was 
thus  actually  begun.  On  the  27th  of  April 
following,  with  Messrs.  Horton,  Diiring,  Jost, 
and  their  wives,  they  reached  Freetown  in 
safety.  The  voyage  had  not  been  without 
incidents  of  interest.  Twice  divine  deliver- 
ances had  been  wrought  in  answer  to  prayer 
— once  when  Johnson  was  taken  dangerously 
iU,  and  again  when  by  some  carelessness  or 
mismanagement  the  ship  had  been  driven  so 
close  to  the  rocks  that  it  was  almost  impossi- 
ble to  avoid  its  being  dashed  in  pieces. 

When  the  missionaries,  meeting  at  Sierra 
Leone,  divided  up  the  field  among  the  labor- 
ers, Hogbrook,  afterward  known  as  Regent's 
Town,  was  appointed  as  Johnson's  particular 
station.  He  was  candidly  made  acquainted 
with  the  fact  that  many  negroes  were  there, 
and  in  a  fearful  slough  of  mingled  wickedness, 
woe,  and  want.  But — keeping  that  promise 
before  him,  "  I  will  bring  the  blind  by  a  way 
that  they  knew  not,"  and  feehng  that  he  had 


38  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

not  chosen  the  field  for  himself,  but  had  been 
chosen  by  God  for  the  field — instead  of  being 
driven  into  darkness  by  the  unpromising 
aspects  of  his  work,  he  found  light  in  looking 
up  to  God  and  was  enabled  even  to  rejoice  and 
exult  in  Him.  A  deep  conviction  possessed 
him,  at  the  outset,  that  God's  Spirit  both  could 
and  would  uphold  him  and  his  fellow-laborers 
in  their  humble  efforts,  and  make  them  the 
means  of  salvation  to  multitudes  of  these  de- 
based negi'oes.  In  this  strong  faith  we  may 
find  a  prophecy  of  the  actual  results.  "  We 
are  saved  by  hope."  Despair  never  yet 
achieved  anything  but  disaster.  There  was 
something  about  Johnson  that  led  others 
to  expect  results.  Mr.  Bickersteth,  who  had 
arrived  about  six  months  earlier,  soon  dis- 
cerned the  worth  of  a  man  of  such  conse- 
crated spirit,  so  dead  to  the  world  and  self, 
and  so  devoted  to  the  Lord ;  and  he  early  pre- 
dicted that,  wherever  the  providence  of  God 
might  place  Johnson,  a  blessing  would  surely 
follow. 

AmoDg  Johnson's   earliest   utterances  in 
his  new  field  was  a  memorable  tribute  to  the 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOU^  OF  DEATH     39 

power  of  God's  Spirit,  which  is  here  put 
prominently  in  the  forefront  of  the  narrative, 
since  it  is  of  main  consequence,  not  so  much 
that  we  trace  even  so  remarkable  a  career,  as 
that  we  penetrate  to  those  secrets  of  success 
which  are,  like  God  Himself,  essentially  the 
same  yesterday  and  to-day  and  forever. 

Among  the  earliest  entries  in  his  journal, 
he  records  how,  when  confronted  with  the 
terrible  degradation  and  depravity  of  the 
Hogbrook  negroes,  he  felt  "fully  convinced 
that  if  God  the  Holy  Spirit  stopped  them,  as 
it  were,  in  their  mad  career,  although  some 
of  the  wildest  cannibals  in  Africa,  they  could 
not  any  longer  resist."  This  is  another  fac- 
tor in  this  marvelous  career  which  explains 
its  manifold  and  multiplied  successes.  Two 
we  have  already  noticed — the  constant  resort 
for  guidance  to  the  infallible  Book  of  God, 
and  the  bold  approach  in  prayer  to  the  throne 
of  grace.  Here  is  the  third :  William  John- 
son honored  and  trusted  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
God.  Keeping  these  three  great  facts  full  in 
view,  we  shall  need  no  other  philosophy  to 
account  for  these  seven  years  in  Sierra  Leone. 


40  SE^BN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

Soon  after  Johnson's  arrival  at  the  colony  he 
went  to  the  Yongroo  district  to  introduce  Bell's 
system  of  education.  Its  author,  Andrew 
Bell,  D.D. — who  was  born  at  St.  Andrews  in 
1753,  and  died  in  1832 — while  at  Madras  act- 
ing as  chaplain,  was  intrusted  by  the  direc- 
tors of  the  East  India  Company  with  the 
management  of  the  school  for  the  education 
of  the  orphans  of  the  European  militia.  He 
obtained  the  services  of  well-qualified  teachers, 
and  adopted  the  expedient  of  conducting  the 
school  by  the  aid  of  the  pupils  themselves. 
Hence  originated  the  famous  "monitorial 
system,"  so  called,  whereby  the  school  or 
family  might  teach  itself  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  a  master  or  parent.  This  meth- 
od is  here  briefly  outlined  because  Johnson 
availed  himself  of  it  in  the  educational  work 
of  the  colony. 

He  found  the  children  more  active  and 
quick  to  apprehend  than  he  had  expected. 
While  in  the  Yongroo  district  he  also  met  two 
natives,  each  of  whom  came  to  him  saying, 
"  Me  wish  to  learn  Book ;  me  know  nothing ;" 
and  whom  he  began  at  once  to  teach  to  read 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOIV  OF  DEATH     41 

the  Word  of  God,  this  experience  being  a  fore- 
cast and  foretaste  of  what  he  was  afterward  to 
see  more  largely  developed — the  intense  de- 
sire for  a  knowledge  of  the  divine  Book. 

In  June,  less  than  two  months  after  land- 
ing, Johnson  removed  to  Hogbrook,  where 
he  found  fifteen  hundred  released  slaves  wait- 
ing to  be  taught.  As  he  looked  upon  this 
mixed  company — the  very  refuse  of  human- 
ity— he  felt  that  no  mere  human  teaching 
could  reach  and  raise  them  to  any  higher 
dignity;  but  he  planted  his  faith  firmly  on 
this  conviction :  that  with  God  nothing  is  im- 
possible, and  that  it  was  the  lost  that  Jesus 
came  to  seek  and  to  save.  He  remembered 
that  God's  Word  is  a  hammer  that  breaks  in 
pieces  the  flinty  rock,  and  that  God's  Spirit 
is  a  fire  that  melts  and  subdues  all  things; 
and  he  undertook  his  work,  simply  waiting 
on  God,  confidently  trusting  in  almighty 
power  and  love,  dependently  looking  to  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  give  all  increase,  and  will- 
ing and  desirous  that  all  praise,  honor,  and 
glory  should  accrue  to  God  alone.  Every 
word  above  written  should  be  weighed  and 


42  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

pondered.  "We  are  starting  out  on  a  path  of 
narration  in  which  are  to  be  traced  some  of  the 
most  marvelous  signs  of  God's  working  since 
apostolic  days;  and  it  is  first  of  all  needful, 
for  the  full  profit  of  this  study,  that  we  fix  in 
our  minds  the  human  conditions  which  made 
it  possible  for  divine  power  to  be  so  singu- 
larly exhibited. 

Let  repetition  first  make  emphatic  the  ab- 
solute hopelessness  of  this  field  of  labor  to 
human  eyes.  Johnson's  first  impressions  no 
subsequent  changes  could  ever  efface.  He 
could  never  forget  the  scene  engraved  on  his 
mind  and  heart  as  he  first  looked  on  the  de- 
graded herds  of  human  swine  at  Hogbrook. 
As  Li\dngstone  confessed  a  half-century  later 
in  the  wilds  of  equatorial  Africa,  he  felt  as 
though  he  were  in  hell  itself  and  breathing 
the  sulphurous  atmosphere  of  the  bottomless 
abyss.  Such  utter  wretchedness  and  un- 
speakable vileness  he  had  never  before  seen ; 
and,  withal,  sin  brought  forth  death  literally, 
for  six  or  seven  died  in  a  day. 

Again  he  said  within  himself,  "Is  there  any 
hope  ? "   But  he  dared  not  give  way  to  despair. 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOIV   OF  DEATH     43 

Could  not  God  make  visible  even  to  these 
and  among  these,  who  were  the  offscouring 
of  the  world,  His  saving  power  ?  The  words 
of  Jesus  came  with  strange  force  to  his  mind : 
"  So  the  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last." 
And  so  he  freshly  resolved,  "I  will  simply 
go  and  tell  these  poor  creatures  of  the  love 
of  Christ,  and  rest  on  God's  promise,  'My 
word  shall  not  return  unto  Me  void.' " 

He  began  at  once  to  carry  out  his  purpose. 
He  found  very  few  of  them  who  could  speak 
even  a  broken  Enghsh.  The  greater  propor- 
tion of  them,  being  taken  from  slave-ships 
and  originally  captured  from  different  Afri- 
can tribes,  were,  of  course,  ignorant  of  one 
another's  language  and  had  no  common 
vehicle  of  conversation  or  communication, 
except  a  sort  of  dialect,  generally  found  in 
such  cases,  in  which  English  words  were 
thrown  together  without  grammatical  forms 
or  connections,  but  sufficiently  intelligible  to 
convey  meaning.  Of  course  the  capacity 
to  understand  English  was  correspondingly 
limited,  and  their  teacher  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  use  only  such  words  and  sentences 


44  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

as  are  of  the  simplest  sort,  adapted  to  a  child's 
mind  and  measure  of  intelligence. 

It  was  a  happy  circumstance  that  it  was 
not  necessary  to  describe  what  he  found  in 
this  new  field.  The  misery  of  Hogbrook,  or 
Regent's  Town,  could  not  be  conceived  by  an 
outsider  even  if  adequately  portrayed,  but  it 
could  not  be  put  in  words.  He  found  some 
in  an  actual  state  of  starvation,  and  to  them 
it  was  his  business  to  deal  out  rations  of  food 
first  of  all.  He  was  himself  living  in  a  leaky 
hut,  with  no  bed  but  the  ground,  with  no 
covering  but  a  blanket,  his  wife  remaining 
elsewhere  until  a  decent  dwelling  could  be 
built  at  Hogbrook.  He  describes  himself  as 
"  in  a  wilderness,"  but  adds :  " '  In  the  wilder- 
ness shall  waters  break  out,  and  streams  in 
the  desert.  And  the  parched  ground  shall  be- 
come a  pool,  and  the  thirsty  land  springs  of 
water.' "  Thus  did  the  Lord  prove  to  His  ser- 
vant the  truth  of  His  own  promise  that,  when 
God's  words  are  found  and  we  do  eat  them, 
they  are  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  our  hearts. 
There  is  some  message  of  God  supplied  for 
every  time  of  need. 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOIV  OF  DEATH     45 

Another  discouragement  threatened  the 
work  just  begun:  the  strongest  member  of 
this  little  missionary  band  was  the  first  to 
succumb  to  the  treacherous  African  climate, 
namely,  Mr.  Jost ;  but  Grod  sustained  John- 
son. He  strengthened  himself  in  the  Lord 
and  with  new  vigor  took  up  daily  duty  as 
one  who  has  been  forcibly  reminded  that  the 
time  is  short. 

The  influence  of  superstition  is  enslaving 
in  proportion  to  the  otherwise  low  level  of  the 
poor  victims  who  are  in  bondage  to  it.  Igno- 
rance is  the  mother  of  superstition,  and,  be- 
cause the  ignorance  of  these  natives  was  ex- 
treme, their  fears  were  correspondingly  easy 
to  excite  and  hard  to  allay.  The  worship  of 
fetishes  is  inseparable  from  such  a  low  level, 
and  in  his  whole  experience  among  these  peo- 
ple Johnson  found  the  power  of  gree-grees 
immense.  These  are  charms,  whose  fasci- 
nation consists,  more  than  anything  else,  in 
the  mystery  which  invests  them.  A  piece  of 
buffalo  hide  or  alligator's  skin,  within  which 
is  sewed  up  an  unknown  something, — a  bit 
of  an  elephant's  tooth,  a  serpent's  fang  or 


46  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

rattle,  a  strip  of  parchment  with  a  few  char- 
acters from  the  Koran,  a  piece  of  glass,  or 
almost  anything  else,  with  or  without  value, 
— suffices  to  command  a  veneration  scarcely 
second  in  degree  to  the  homage  paid  to  the 
most  august  and  gigantic  idol.  On  one  of 
his  mission  tours  in  the  colony  Johnson 
found  a  very  superstitious  man,  who  had 
formerly  lived  at  Regent's  Town,  but  had  left 
it  for  some  district  less  enlightened  by  the 
gospel,  where  he  could  live  more  securely 
after  the  fashion  of  his  pagan  countrymen. 
In  a  word,  he  was  one  who,  doing  evil,  hates 
the  light  and  withdraws  into  the  darkness  to 
escape  its  reproving  ray.  He  was  in  bondage 
to  gree-grees ;  and  in  hope  to  show  him  the 
worthlessness  of  his  charms — the  powerless- 
ness  of  his  little  god — Johnson  had  cut  open 
the  leather  in  which  one  was  sewed  and  found 
it  to  contain  nothing  but  a  piece  of  paper — 
the  old  wrapper  belonging  to  a  cake  of  soap, 
and  upon  which  was  the  stamp  of  the  manufac- 
turer, "Grenuine  Windsor  Soap."  The  vain 
charm  was  exposed  to  the  man  and  his  compan- 
ions, evoking  hearty  laughter.   This  gree-gree 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOJV  OF  DEATH     47 

had  a  history  that  is  instructive  and  sugges- 
tive. Its  owner  had  bought  it,  for  one  shil- 
ling and  threepence  sterling,  of  a  Mandingo 
man,  a  Mohammedan — an  example  of  the 
way  in  which  these  deluded  people  are  prac- 
tised upon  by  Moslems.  And  yet  these  gree- 
grees  and  "  devils'  houses "  were  then  to  be 
seen  everywhere  through  the  colony. 

One  of  the  deepest  shadows  which  the 
missionary  found,  even  in  this  land  of  the 
death-shade,  was  the  complete  degradation  of 
the  people,  and  the  utter  inadequacy  of  such 
terms  as  they  understood  to  convey  any 
proper  conceptions  of  divine  things.  This 
double  discouragement  confronted  him  every- 
where, and  would  have  confounded  him,  had 
he  not  remembered  that  the  things  which  are 
impossible  with  men  are  possible  with  God. 
Here  were  minds  and  hearts  so  brutalized 
with  sin  and  so  fossilized  into  insensibility 
that  to  make  any  wholesome  impression  on 
them  seemed  hopeless ;  and  the  only  medium 
of  conveying  such  impression  was  language 
that  had  sunk  to  their  own  low  level.  He 
who  is  to  lift  men  needs  a  lifting  force,  and 


48  SEi^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

in  this  case  the  force,  or  at  least  the  fulcrum, 
was  what  was  lacking. 

For  example,  William  Davis  went  toward 
Cockle  Bay  to  speak  to  his  country-people  of 
Jesus,  and,  on  returning,  told  Johnson  that  he 
met  some  natives,  whom  he  besought  to  go 
to  Wilberforce  to  hear  Mr.  Gates  preach,  but 
who  replied  that,  as  they  did  not  understand 
English,  they  could  not  even  pray  to  God. 
There  was  in  this  a  deeper  meaning  than  they 
knew,  for  their  vernacular  was  so  hopelessly 
interwoven  with  their  abominations  and  su- 
perstitions that  it  seemed  incapable  of  con- 
veying Christian  ideas.  Mr.  Davis  had  indeed 
assured  them  that  He  who  knows  our  desires 
and  thoughts  can  read  the  heart's  longing 
even  through  the  most  imperfect  dialect,  but 
we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  such 
native  speech  presented  a  mountain  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  gospel  triumph. 

Again,  the  shadow  of  imported  vices  rested 
on  this  land.  It  was  found  necessary  to  ex- 
plain to  these  slaves  the  word  "  Christmas  " 
and  the  meaning  of  the  festivities  associated 
with  our  Lord's  nativity.    There  had  been 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOIV  OF  DEATH     49 

introduced,  by  Europeans,  a  custom  of  almost 
universal  intoxication ;  every  one  made  as 
much  noise  as  possible,  and  gunning,  dan- 
cing, drumming,  and  most  other  forms  of 
boisterous  and  riotous  celebration  disgraced 
the  sacred  day,  carried  to  a  great  pitch  of  rev- 
elry. But  now  Johnson  had  the  joy  of  not- 
ing that  not  a  single  person  was  intoxicated, 
nor  was  there  any  unusual  noise  or  distur- 
bance on  Christmas  day.  A  reverent  audi- 
ence met  at  the  service  of  worship  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  in  the  evening  he  went  to  Leices- 
ter Mountain  to  hold  a  missionary  prayer- 
meeting,  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  about 
four  hundred  men,  women,  and  children. 

The  slave-trade  added  to  all  other  curses 
which  rested  upon  Africa  a  darkness  which 
might  be  felt.  It  filled  him  with  an  un- 
speakable horror,  which  reminds  one  of  Liv- 
ingstone's chronic  impression  about  what  he 
called  the  "open  sore  of  the  world."  As 
cargo  after  cargo  was  landed  from  rescue 
ships,  and  human  beings  were  left  to.  be  cared 
for,  and  in  the  most  deplorable  condition, 
from  two  hundred  to  as  many  as  from  eight 


50  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

hundred  to  twelve  hundred  at  one  time, 
Johnson  felt  as  though  a  door  had  been 
opened  into  hell  itself,  giving  him  some  faint 
conception  of  the  miseries  of  lost  souls. 
These  rescued  slaves  were  in  every  way  liv- 
ing pictures  and  parables  of  woe  and  want, 
wretchedness  and  wickedness.  The  women 
especially  were  sufferers ;  most  of  all,  the  girls 
from  ten  to  twelve  years  of  age.  Most  of  the 
children  were  taken  ill,  and  many  of  them 
died,  too  weak  to  resist  disease.  And,  but 
for  the  unselfish  love  that  bore  him  up  as  in 
everlasting  arms,  he  acknowledged  that  he 
would  rather  have  been  shut  up  in  a  dungeon 
than  have  been  compelled  to  behold  the  suf- 
ferings, hear  the  sighs  and  groans,  and  witness 
the  dying  agonies  of  these  victims  of  man's 
inhumanity  to  man.  To  save  their  lives 
seemed  a  vain  hope,  and  in  some  respects 
scarcely  desirable,  for  it  meant  a  prolongation 
of  misery.  To  save  their  souls  seemed  even 
more  impossible  in  the  brief  time  and  amid 
the  limited  opportunities  which  were  avail- 
able. 
To  add  to  the  afflictions  of  this  humble  ser- 


THE  LAND   OF  THE  SHADOIV  OF  DEATH     51 

vant  of  God,  ophthalmia,  which  had  broken 
out  at  Regent's  Town,  had  seized  upon  his 
eyes,  so  that  he  could  scarcely  see. 

And  yet,  amid  all  these  surroundings,  this 
man  of  God  undertook  to  hold  forth  that 
Word  which  is  at  once  light  and  life.  The 
church  and  school-house  stood  together  on 
one  hill,  in  a  large  inclosure.  The  remainder 
of  the  hill  contained  about  twelve  acres,  and, 
with  the  help  of  the  children,  was  early 
brought  into  a  state  of  cultivation,  which 
promised  in  another  year  to  furnish  nearly 
if  not  quite  enough  provision  for  the  school 
tables.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1817,  and 
after  a  residence  of  only  eighteen  months, 
William  Johnson  could  rejoicingly  contem- 
plate an  improvement  so  rapid,  regular,  and 
far-reaching  that  it  may  be  questioned  whe- 
ther the  like  of  it  has  been  seen  elsewhere 
in  missionary  history.  We  have  searched  the 
annals  of  the  century  without  finding  any 
parallel,  unless  perhaps  it  be  found  in  such  as- 
tonishing victories  of  the  gospel  as  have  been 
exhibited  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  in  the 
Telugu  Mission  in  India,  in  Banza  Manteke 


52  SEl/EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

in  equatorial  Africa,  and  in  northern  Formosa 
under  George  L.  MacKay.  Yet  in  some  re- 
spects what  Johnson  saw  in  Sierra  Leone 
surpasses,  as  it  also  precedes,  them  all. 

This  godly  missionary  found  himself  at  the 
close  of  this  year,  without  any  assistance, 
amid  labors,  both  temporal  and  spiritual, 
which  were  overwhelming.  The  people  to 
whom  he  ministered  were  like  feeble  bulbs 
set  in  the  soil,  with  scarce  life  enough  to  sur- 
vive, and  needing  constant  watching  and 
nursing  in  order  to  their  growth  or  even  con- 
tinued existence.  And  he  was  so  pressed  and 
oppressed  by  the  care  of  temporalities  that 
he  could  not  attend  as  he  would  to  the  higher 
interests  of  their  souls.  He  had  to  oversee 
blacksmiths,  masons,  carpenters,  attend  to 
storekeeping  and  land-tilling,  be  a  surveyor 
and  a  purveyor,  teach  and  preach,  feed  bodies 
and  feed  souls,  all  at  once.  And  yet  he  saw 
Hogbrook  already,  after  eighteen  months,  be- 
coming a  garden  of  the  Lord,  where  the 
spiritual  features  corresponded  to  the  im- 
proving material  aspect  and  attraction.  The 
low  brook  which,  running  through  the  town, 


THE  LAND   OF   THE  SHADOIV   OF  DEATH     53 

gave  it  its  somliewat  offensive  name,  was  a 
symbol  of  the  river  of  the  water  of  life,  which 
makes  everything  to  live  whither  it  cometh. 
In  this  nnfruitful  soil  he  sowed  the  double 
seed  of  the  kingdom :  first  the  Word  of  God, 
and  secondly  himself,  content  to  fall  into  the 
ground  and  die  that  he  might  bring  forth 
much  fruit.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that,  in 
this  region  and  shadow  of  death,  again  it  be- 
came true  that  "  hght  is  sprung  up." 


CHAPTER  III 

RIGHTLY  DIVIPING  THE  WORD   OF  TRUTH 

When  Mrs.  Ingalls  in  Burma  found  herself 
face  to  face  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
unsaved  souls,  she  could  not  withhold  from 
them  the  message  of  salvation,  and  in  her 
simple  way,  like  the  woman  of  Samaria,  be- 
came the  herald  of  the  Saviour  she  had  found. 
When  by  conservative  ecclesiastics  she  was 
called  to  account  for  her  itinerating  tours, 
and  asked,  "Were  you  ever  ordained  to 
preach?"  she  replied,  "No;  but  I  was/oreor- 

William  Johnson  had  originally  been  sent 
to  Sierra  Leone  to  teach  school,  but  he  had 
been  thrust  by  the  very  exigencies  of  the  field 
into  the  work  of  an  evangehst,  and  had  made 
full  proof  of  his  ministry.  Though  not  com- 
missioned nor  ordained  by  man  to  preach, 

54 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   55 

yet,  in  the  presence  of  such  want  and  woe, 
such  spiritual  destitution  and  spiritual  in- 
quiry, he  could  only  say  to  himself,  "  I  have 
no  ability  nor  authority,  but  what  can  I 
do?  My  heart  is  full,  and  if  I  should  hold 
my  peace,  the  very  stones  would  immediately 
cry  out."  It  had  always  been  his  desire  to 
preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  but 
he  had  felt  his  unworthiness  so  deeply  that 
he  doubted  his  call  to  this  work.  Grod  Him- 
self had  now  solved  his  perplexity  in  a  very 
practical  way  by  constraining  him  to  become 
His  witness  in  the  presence  of  such  abound- 
ing need  and  in  the  absence  of  any  who  were 
better  qualified.  The  divine  seal  was  on  the 
work  and  on  the  workman,  and  it  was  plain 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  meant  him  for  a  service 
much  more  extended  and  important  than  was 
included  in  the  first  plan.  He  had  uncon- 
sciously grown  into  a  first-class  missionary, 
and  the  committee  in  London  felt  that  he 
should  be  formally  invested  with  all  proper 
authority  for  his  wider  work.  Accordingly, 
letters  were  written  calling  a  meeting  of  the 
missionaries,  Butscher,  Wylander,  and  Wen- 


56  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

zel,  for  his  ordination'  as  a  Lutheran  min- 
ister. 

Meanwhile  nine  more  adults  were  baptized 
and  other  candidates  were  waiting.  The 
Saturday  evening  prayer  service  was  notably 
a  time  of  special  blessing,  and  that  particular 
hour  was  marvelously  owned  of  God.  For 
example,  on  the  first  Saturday  evening  of 
January,  1817,  while  prayer  was  being  offered 
to  God,  two  young  men  cried  out,  "Jesus, 
Massa,  have  mercy,"  and  with  such  demon- 
strations of  deep  feeling  that  the  incident 
naturally  prevented  the  orderly  conduct  of  a 
prayer-meeting,  as  it  distracted  the  attention 
of  the  people.  The  meeting  was  about  clos- 
ing when  Johnson,  going  outside,  found  in 
a  house  near  at  hand  a  throng  of  negroes, 
some  on  their  knees  crying  aloud,  others  sit- 
ting, but  trembling  and  in  tears,  while  yet 
others  in  their  broken  dialect  were  singing 
praises  unto  Jesus.  Unable  to  pass  by  such 
a  gathering,  he  went  in  and  spoke  to  them  of 
the  new  birth  from  above,  in  terms  adapted 
to  their  simplicity.  They  heard  him  with 
much  docility,  but,  when  he  proposed  the 


RIGHTLY  DiyiDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   57 

singing  of  a  hymn,  their  sobs  choked  their 
utterance,  and  when  he  attempted  to  pray, 
his  voice  was  almost  drowned  by  their  loud 
outcries  for  mercy. 

He  recorded  the  fact  that  never  before  had 
he  anywhere  witnessed  such  a  scene,  and 
that  waves  of  feeling  swept  over  him  like 
ocean  tides  as  he  beheld  the  workings  of  God 
on  these  hearts  and  consciences.  Mingled 
astonishment  and  gratitude  swayed  him.  He 
had  come  out  to  Sierra  Leone  asking  of  God 
one  soul  as  his  reward,  and  already  beheld 
the  abundant  fruits  of  his  labors  apparent. 
At  the  six  o'clock  prayer-meeting  of  the  Sun- 
day morning  these  singular  manifestations  of 
God's  mighty  power  were  renewed,  as  also  at 
the  regular  morning  service,  when  he  spoke 
from  John  xxi.  19 :  "  Follow  thou  Me." 

Experiences  like  these  were,  even  at  this 
early  stage  of  his  work,  already  so  common 
that  the  entries  in  his  journals  are  little  more 
than  a  monotonous  repetition  or  reiteration 
of  the  description  of  such  scenes  and  inci- 
dents, so  that  examples  need  not  be  multi- 
l^lied.    It  will  suffice  to  add  that  such  evi- 


58  SE^EN    YE/IRS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

dences  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  directly- 
dealing  with  the  conscience  and  will  were 
abundant  throughout  the  whole  period  of 
Johnson's  labors. 

On  the  second  Sunday  of  February,  after 
the  baptism  of  ten  adults,  the  Lord's  Supper 
was  celebrated  with  forty-one  communicants ; 
and,  as  usual,  Johnson  dwelt  upon  the  great 
themes  of  human  guilt  and  divine  grace. 
"Without  remembering  his  constant  recur- 
rence to  these  two  foundation  truths  we  shall 
miss  the  most  important  lesson  of  his  minis- 
try and  the  vital  secret  of  his  serviceableness. 
It  may  be  well,  therefore,  to  tarry  just  here 
and  consider  the  bearing  of  the  truth  preached 
upon  the  whole  power  of  our  ministry  to 
souls. 

There  is  no  accident  in  the  moral  universe. 
A  law  of  cause  and  effect  works  in  the  realm 
of  mind  as  in  the  realm  of  matter.  God  is 
not  mocked  by  atheistic  chance,  with  its 
hopeless  uncertainties:  every  seed  has  its 
own  body,  and  every  sowing  its  own  reaping, 
and  the  harvest  is  according  to  the  tilling. 
Our  own  persuasion  grows,  as  our  observa- 


RIGHTLY  DIFIDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   59 

tion  and  experience  broaden  our  induction, 
that,  as  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  phrases 
it,  it  is  the  great  primary  truths  of  the  gospel 
that  most  surely  mold  character.  John  the 
Baptist,  last  of  the  old  seers,  first  of  the  new 
evangelists,  was  a  voice  proclaiming  three 
great  primitive  truths:  first,  sin  and  judg- 
ment ;  second,  the  coming  of  One  greater  than 
he,  to  atone  for  sin  and  remove  judgment; 
third,  the  present  opportunity  of  faith  in 
Him,  whereby  sin  is  effectually  taken  away 
before  judgment  lifts  its  awful  ax  of  de- 
struction. "  Behold,  the  Lamb  of  God,  who 
beareth  away  the  sin  of  the  world ! "  Here  is 
one  sentence,  with  its  few,  simple,  primary 
teachings;  and  upon  those  foundations  all 
practical  theology  may  be  constructed — the 
whole  divine  system  of  saving  truth.  Germs 
of  doctrine,  they  are  capable  of  endless  ex- 
pansion, but  they  nevertheless  contain  in 
themselves,  germinally,  all  that  we  need  to 
know  in  order  to  salvation. 

It  is  a  singular  proof  of  the  wisdom  and 
grace  of  God  that  He  has  made  the  primary 
truths  of  salvation  so  few  and  so  simple.     He 


60  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

loved  the  world  and  yearned  over  the  race. 
Salvation  could  be  applicable  to  the  whole 
family  of  man  only  as  it  was  adapted  to  the 
lowest  and  least.  There  are  vast  multitudes, 
so  sunk  in  sin  and  so  small  in  intellectual 
capacity,  that  they  can  take  in  only  the  sim- 
plest primitive  truths ;  and  all  of  us,  even  the 
highest  and  greatest  and  wisest,  have  at  last 
to  return  to  and  lean  upon  these  same  primi- 
tive truths. 

The  famous  Bishop  Butler,  who  has  been 
called  the  Melchizedek  of  the  Anglican 
Church,  because  he  had  neither  predecessor 
nor  successor,  had  days  of  darkness  as  he  ap- 
proached his  dying  hour.  "  What  shall  I  lay 
hold  of  I"  said  he  to  his  chaplain.  He  re- 
minded the  dying  bishop  of  the  atonement 
for  sin.  "But  how  shall  I  know  that  it  is 
for  me  .^  "  " '  Him  that  cometh  unto  Me  I  will 
in  no  wise  cast  out,' "  was  the  scriptui'al  an- 
swer. "  Oh,  this  is  comfortable  indeed !  "  said 
the  bishop,  as  he  rested,  like  any  other  poor 
sinner,  upon  the  all-sufficiency  of  grace  and 
the  all-inclusiveness  of  the  promise  of  God. 

The  late  Bishoj)  of  Durham,  one  of  the 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   61 

greatest  scholars  and  thinkers  of  his  age, 
had,  as  he  neared  life's  boundary,  many  weeks 
of  quiet  debility,  favorable  to  meditative 
habits.  His  friends  thought  that  his  mighty 
mind  might  be  brooding  over  some  great 
problems  of  philosophy  or  theology.  But  he 
assured  them  it  was  not  so.  He  said,  "  I  take 
three  or  four  great  primitive  truths  and  think 
upon  them  constantly."  From  all  his  excur- 
sions into  the  limitless  realms  of  speculative 
thought  he  at  last  returned  with  the  spirit  of 
a  little  child  to  quench  his  thirst  at  the  foun- 
tain of  living  waters,  and,  like  Israel  in  the 
desert,  drink  of  that  Rock  which  is  Christ. 

Michael  Faraday  had  the  brains  of  twenty 
common  men ;  yet  when  he  was  asked,  as  the 
last  hours  drew  near,  "  What  are  your  specu- 
lations ? "  calmly  said,  "  Speculations  ?  I  have 
none.  I  am  not  resting  my  dying  head  on 
speculations.  '  I  know  whom  I  have  believed, 
and  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  Him 
against  that  day.'"*  And  so,  when  Sir 
George  Williams  visited  the  dying  Earl  of 

*  2  Tim.  i.  12. 


62  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Shaftesbury,  and  fonnd  him,  with  face  turned 
to  the  wall,  in  deep  depression,  he  bent  over 
and  whispered  in  his  ear,  " '  Complete  in  Him ' 
— complete,  that  is,  lacking  nothing !  "  The 
departing  earl  turned  over  in  bed  and  said, 
"Yes;  that  is  just  the  message  that  I  need 
now." 

It  is  a  well-known  and  very  beautiful  fact 
that  both  John  "Wesley  and  Charles  H.  Spur- 
geon,  who  in  the  next  century  in  so  many 
things  closely  resembled  him,  had  similar 
experiences  in  approaching  death.  Wesley 
had  several  days  of  struggle  with  Satan,  and 
deep  darkness,  and  on  coming  out  of  the  con- 
flict he  said : 

"  I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 
But  Jesus  died  for  me  !  " 

And  Spurgeon,  as  he  approached  death,  said 
to  his  friend  Taylor  of  Norwood,  "  There  are 
four  words  upon  which  I  have  lived  and  shall 
die."  "What  are  they?  "said  Taylor.  "They 
are  these  four,"  said  Spurgeon :  "  Jesus  died 
for  me  !  " 

We  would  affirm,  what  from  time  to  time 
we  shall  emphasize  by  repetition  in  the  course 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE  IVORD  OF  TRUTH   63 

of  this  narrative,  that  we  believe  that  the 
almost  unprecedented  triumph  of  William 
Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone  was  owing  mainly 
to  three  things :  he  heartily  honored  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God ;  he  constantly  communed  with 
God  in  prayer;  and  he  preached  uniformly 
the  great  primary  truths  of  the  gospel.  What 
we  just  now  desire  to  make  emphatic  is  that 
he  did  not  neglect  those  severer  aspects  of 
truth  which  are  necessary  if  we  are  to  arouse 
sinners  to  a  sense  of  danger  and  make  them 
appreciate  their  need  of  Christ.  For  instance, 
one  Sunday  morning  he  took  as  his  theme 
the  day  of  judgment,  with  the  state  of  the 
saints  in  heaven  and  of  the  wicked  in  hell. 
One  hearer,  William  Tamba,  went  home  much 
alarmed,  tried  to  pray,  but  could  not,  tried  to 
sleep,  but  could  not,  and  when  at  length  he 
wearily  fell  into  slumber,  he  had  a  dreadful 
dream.  He  saw  a  man  coming  into  his  cot- 
tage and  making  in  the  middle  of  it  a  large 
fire ;  then  bringing  in  two  persons,  he  bound 
them  with  chains  and  put  them  into  the  fire. 
Tamba  in  his  dream  beheld  the  nails  dropping 
from  their  fingers  and  toes,  and  he  saw  that 


64  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

they  were  not  dead,  but  howling  with  anguish. 
At  length  the  man  came  to  Tamba  himself 
and  prepared  to  thrust  him  also  into  the  fire, 
when  another  voice  from  behind  solemnly- 
said,  "  Let  him  alone ;  he  belongs  to  Me !  " 
Whereupon  he  was  set  at  liberty  at  once. 
So  vivid  was  this  dream  that  when  he  fully 
awoke  he  found  himself  upon  his  knees  be- 
fore his  bed.  He  continued  in  tears  and 
prayers  all  night,  and  early  the  next  day  came 
to  Johnson,  asking,  like  the  Philippian  jailer, 
"What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  and  when 
an  explanation  of  his  inquiries  was  sought, 
he  related  his  dream  of  the  night  preceding. 

How  far  Johnson  was  from  any  mere  pride 
of  numbers  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that 
in  his  letter  to  the  secretaries  in  October, 
1821,  he  said :  "  I  cannot  say  how  many  com- 
municants we  have.  The  number  is  great ;  I 
am  afraid  to  number  them." 

In  1822  he  again  wrote  to  the  secretaries, 
specifying  where  missionaries  or  schoolmas- 
ters were  needful,  and  he  added,  "Mission- 
aries who  will  simply  preach  Christ  crucified 
will  alone  succeed,"    He  said  i  "  None  of  the 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   65 

Gentiles  have  been  more  injured  than  Africa, 
and  no  people  is  more  degraded.  It  is  time 
to  assume  the  character  of  the  widow  who 
pleaded,  '  Avenge  me  of  mine  adversary.'  I 
plead  not  mine  own  case,  but  the  widowhood 
of  Africa;  for  her  will  I  cry  with  importu- 
nity, '  Send  missionaries !  send  missionaries ! 
Avenge  Africa  of  her  adversary ! ' " 

The  school  work  formed  a  conspicuous  fea- 
ture in  the  labors  of  Johnson  at  Hogbrook. 
When  the  bell  first  rang  for  school,  ninety 
boys,  besides  all  the  girl-pupils,  made  their 
appearance,  and  he  formed  them  into  four 
classes.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  another 
school  was  opened  for  adults,  with  twelve 
women  and  thirty-one  men.  In  this  as  in 
all  other  forms  of  service  the  sole  dependence 
was  on  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  unceasing 
prayer  was  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  reveal  the 
truth  and  power  of  God  to  the  soul.  Few  of 
Christ's  servants  ever  presented  a  parallel  to 
the  simple,  humble,  single-minded  faith  and 
devotion  of  this  missionary,  and  few  triumphs 
of  the  gospel  present  a  parallel  to  the  story 
of  these  seven  years  at  Sierra  Leone.    Do 


66  SEl/EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

not  these  two  facts  bear  the  relation  of  cause 
and  effect  ?  Is  success  such  as  we  now  begin 
to  chronicle  an  accident  or  a  mere  incident, 
or  is  it  simply  a  natural  harvest  of  the  un- 
mixed seed  of  the  kingdom,  steeped  in  tears 
and  sown  in  faith  ? 

The  school  grew  so  fast  that  there  was  no 
room ;  fifty  boys  were  crowded  on  the  piazza 
and  others  under  the  shade  of  trees.  Mean- 
while the  church  building  was  in  erection, 
where,  as  soon  as  ready,  it  was  proposed  to 
hold  both  school  and  services  of  worship. 
So  pressing  were  the  spiritual  needs  of  this 
people  that  it  was  deeply  regretted  that  any 
time  must  be  given  to  secular  cares  and 
affairs;  but  in  all  matters  he  sought  to  act 
as  a  partner  with  God.  He  yearned  also  to 
go  into  neighboring  villages  and  teach  the 
Word  of  Grod,  where  the  English  tongue  was 
better  or  more  widely  understood;  but  for 
the  time  he  was  compelled  to  give  all  heed  to 
the  destitution  immediately  about  him,  wish- 
ing he  could  multiply  himself  a  hundredfold. 

Every  work  finds  unbelieving  hinderers. 
When  the  schools  and  congregations  were 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   IVORD   OF   TRUTH   G7 

outgrowing  all  accommodations — and  such 
hunger  was  manifested  to  hear  the  Word  of 
God  that  the  people  pressed  upon  him  as 
upon  his  Master,  so  that  there  was  no  room 
even  about  the  door — there  were  those  who 
stood  off  and  shook  their  heads  ominously; 
and  who  discouraged  him,  saying  that  Afri- 
cans are  all  like  a  tornado,  which  comes  all 
at  once  and  with  a  rush,  but  soon  blows  over. 
But  his  trust  was  too  strongly  fixed  in  God 
to  be  easily  turned  aside.  He  was  confident 
that  such  a  desire  to  hear  and  read  the  Word 
of  God  could  come  only  from  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  had  therefore  upon  it  the  seal  of 
continuance.  Meanwhile,  despite  all  the  pre- 
dictions of  doubters  and  unbelievers,  the  day- 
school  increased  to  a  hundred  and  forty  boys 
and  women,  and  gi-ew  in  interest  as  well  as 
numbers.  A  stone  church  capable  of  holding 
some  five  hundred  was  roofed  in,  in  August, 
and  a  fourth  Sunday  had  not  passed  after  its 
opening  before  the  building  was  already  too 
small  for  the  people. 

Thus,  in  a  few  months  after  landing,  we 
have  found  Johnson  settled  in  the  spot  where 


68  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

the  rest  of  his  short  life  was  to  be  spent,  and 
where,  by  God's  blessing,  a  desert  of  sin  and 
Satan  was  rapidly  to  change  into  a  garden 
of  the  Lord.  His  labors  were  so  great  that 
from  one  Sunday  to  another  he  could  scarce 
find  a  single  hour  for  himself.  Captured  ne- 
groes continued  to  arrive  from  time  to  time, 
and  sometimes  as  many  as  a  thousand  at  once. 
He  was  obliged  to  send  for  rice  every  week  to 
Freetown,  five  miles  off,  and  distribute  these 
rations  twice  a  week  without  assistance.  At 
times  it  seemed  as  though  one  man  could  not 
bear  up  under  such  burdens,  and  he  was  on 
the  point  of  giving  up  in  despau*.  But  the 
thought  that  he  might  be  the  means  which 
God  would  use  to  bring  even  this  benighted 
people  to  the  feet  of  Jesus,  nerved  and  forti- 
fied him  for  undertakings  so  laborious  and 
various  that  they  remind  us  of  the  toils  and 
trials  of  Paul. 

The  gospel  proved  itself  again  the  true  civ- 
ilizer.  Idleness  and  ignorance  are  the  hand- 
maids of  vice  and  impiety,  as  industry  and 
intelligence  are  the  handmaids  of  virtue  and 
godliness.     Surprising  as  it  may  seem,  this 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING   THE   IVORD   OF  TRUTH   69 

debased  people  already  began  to  show  im- 
provement in  the  matter  of  cleanliness  and 
thrift.  These  filthy  slaves  studied  personal 
tidiness,  and  strove  to  get  properly  attired  to 
appear  before  the  Lord  on  Sunday.  The  Rev. 
Joel  Lindley,  of  the  Zulu  Mission,  used  to  say 
that  the  first  sign  of  new  life  in  the  natives 
was  a  desire  to  be  clad.  A  man  would  come 
to  the  mission  premises  to  barter  something 
for  a  cheap  calico  shirt,  then  a  few  days  after 
for  a  pair  of  duck  pants,  and  then  for  a  little 
three-legged  stool;  and,  said  Dr.  Lindley, 
"  when  that  Zulu  got  on  his  shirt  and  pants 
and  sat  down  on  his  little  stool  he  was  about 
a  mile  above  the  level  of  the  naked  savages 
about  him."  And  so,  often  the  earliest  indi- 
cation that  the  poor  negroes  of  Hogbrook 
were  aspiring  to  a  new  life  was  a  desire  to 
appear  washed  and  cleanly  clad. 

As  Johnson  continued  speaking  twice  a  day 
and  thrice  on  Sundays,  the  people  thronged 
him  as  though  to  ask  further  knowledge  con- 
cerning the  ways  of  God.  At  times  he  found 
them  seeking  clothing  or  other  supplies  for 
temporal  needs,  and  he  began  to  suspect  that 


70  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

they  were  moved  by  no  higher  niotive  than 
selfish  desire  of  gain.  But  this  was  only  a 
symptom  of  general  improvement,  as  abun- 
dant facts  attested. 

In  October  of  that  first  year  a  shingle- 
maker,  by  name  Joe  Thompson,  following 
him  from  church,  asked  to  speak  with  him. 
With  a  holy  gratitude  he  found  that  this  man 
was  a  religious  inquirer,  seeking  relief,  not 
for  his  body,  but  for  his  soul,  under  a  load 
of  conscious  sin  and  guilt ;  and  he  proved  the 
first  convert  unto  Christ  at  Sierra  Leone. 

It  was  natural  that  the  missionary  should 
take  special  interest  in  this,  the  first-fruits  of 
his  work;  and,  seeking  to  trace  the  means 
used  of  God  for  his  awakening,  he  found 
that  one  evening,  when  he  had  asked  his 
hearers  if  any  of  them  had  ever  given  five 
minutes  to  prayer  to  Jesus,  this  young  me- 
chanic had  been  so  struck  with  the  ques- 
tion, which  he  could  answer  only  to  his  own 
condemnation,  that  it  proved  an  arrow  of 
God,  wounding  him  and  working  deep  con- 
viction of  sin.  He  had  afterward  heard  some 
explanation  of  what  misery  sin  entails,  and 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   WORD   OF   TRUTH   71 

what  is  the  present  and  future  state  of  the 
unforgiven  sinner.  Something  within  wit- 
nessed that  the  Word  of  God  was  true.  All 
the  evil  deeds  and  thoughts  of  his  life  moved 
as  in  awful  procession  before  his  mind  and 
memory.  He  had  tried  to  pray,  but  could  not, 
and  it  was  at  this  stage  that  he  sought  his 
pastor  to  learn  from  him  what  he  must  do  to 
be  saved. 

Imagine  the  sensations  which  thrilled  that 
humble  missionary,  when  God  gave  him,  out 
of  that  offscouring  of  the  world,  the  first  pre- 
cious jewel  for  his  crown !  Let  him  give  his 
own  testimony :  "  What  at  that  moment  I  felt 
is  unspeakable.  I  pointed  this  inquirer  to 
the  crucified  Jesus,  and  the  tears  ran  down 
his  cheeks.  I  was  obliged  to  leave  him,  for 
I  could  not  contain  myself.  I  went  home  and 
fell  on  my  knees." 

First  drops  betoken  a  shower.  The  next 
week  more  inquirers  came  in  like  manner, 
and  the  doubts  and  fears  of  Johnson  as  to  his 
mission  were  at  once  banished.  There  was 
no  more  room  to  question  that  God  had  sent 
him   thither,   for  He  was   daily  with  him. 


72  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Soon  after,  at  his  request,  Mr.  Butsclier,  sta- 
tioned at  Leicester  Mountain,  came  over  and 
baptized  twenty-two  of  these  captured  slaves, 
among  whom  was  one  boy.  As  they  were 
individually  and  carefully  examined  as  to 
their  knowledge  of  Christ,  before  this  ordi- 
nance was  administered,  both  Mr.  Johnson 
and  Mr.  Butscher  were  astonished  to  see  in 
what  manifest  and  manifold  ways  God  had 
revealed  Himself  to  these  ignorant  sons  of 
Ham.  Within  nine  months  after  Johnson's 
arrival  over  forty  had  received  baptism. 

How  simple  were  the  sermons  which  were 
so  used  of  God  may  appear  from  a  few  speci- 
mens which  will  be  found  in  this  short  sketch. 
For  example,  a  discourse  on  1  Corinthians  ii. 
2:  "1.  "Who  is  Jesus  Christ?  2.  What  has 
Jesus  Christ  done?  3.  What  is  Jesus  Christ 
doing  to-day  ?  4.  What  is  Jesus  Christ  going 
to  do  ? "  This  would  hardly  be  accepted  as  a 
model  in  homiletics  or  hermeneutics,  but  it 
was  made  the  means  of  salvation,  which  is 
the  highest  proof  of  efficiency  in  a  sermon ; 
for,  if  none  were  found  to  praise  the  archer 


RIGHTLY  DIVIDING    THE   IVORD  OF   TRUTH    73 

and  his  bow,  there  were  groans  from  the 
wounded  which  proved  that  the  rude  arrow 
had  somehow  hit  the  mark. 

Prayer  and  testimony  meetings  became  a 
natural  necessity,  for  those  whom  God  had 
awakened  yearned  over  others,  and  desired 
to  tell  one  another  what  God  had  done  for 
their  souls.  Affecting  confessions  were  made 
from  time  to  time  in  these  prayer-meetings. 
For  example,  Johnson  preached  on  Sunday, 
May  13,  1821,  on  Isaiah  xliv.  21.  The  ser- 
mon made  an  impression  so  profound  that 
the  next  evening  a  man  came  to  him  and 
made  a  remarkable  disclosure  of  his  own 
state,  and  showed  that  the  Word  of  God  had 
been  to  him  a  mirror  in  which  he  was  sur- 
prised to  see  himseK  and  his  people  so  won- 
derfully reflected  that  he  could  only  exclaim, 
"  God  knows  all  things ;  He  put  them  things 
in  the  Bible."  He  saw  that  no  human  being 
could  have  so  portrayed  the  condition  of  a 
people  he  had  never  seen.*  Thus  by  mani- 
fold   signs   wrought    through    this    simple 

*  Appendix  I. 


74  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

preacher  and  teacher,  who  declared  the  whole 
counsel  of  God,  who  preached  the  law  and 
the  gospel,  rightly  dividing  the  Word  of  truth, 
God  set  His  seal  on  this  His  servant,  and 
enabled  him  to  make  full  proof  of  his  min- 
istry. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SOUND  OF  ABUNDANCE   OF  RAIN 

There  is  in  mechanics,  as  in  nature,  a  law 
of  adjustment,  upon  which  all  harmonious 
and  successful  action  and  interaction  depend. 
Until  one  part  meets  its  fellow-part  in  exact 
articulated  adaptation  the  organism  cannot 
have  healthy  activity.  Until  every  wheel, 
lever,  cog,  and  even  screw,  is  in  its  place  no 
machine,  if  there  be  motion  at  all,  can  move 
without  friction. 

Some  such  thought  as  this  is  suggested  in 
that  divinely  inspired  prayer  which  sums  up 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews:  "The  God  of 
peace  .  .  .  make  you  perfect  in  every  good 
work  to  do  His  will,  working  in  you  that  which 
is  well  pleasing  in  His  sight."*  The  lead- 
ing word  (KarapTiaai)  means,  adjust  you  thor- 

*  Heb.  xiii.  20,  21. 
75 


76  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

ouglily,  knit  or  frame  you  together,  articulate 
you  as  a  joiut  in  the  body  to  the  framework 
of  the  body.  Only  so  can  God  work  in  you 
to  will  and  to  do.  And  it  is  equally  plain 
that  so  soon  as  we  are  thus  adjusted  to  the 
work  and  will  of  Grod  blessing  will  follow,  for 
God  is  free  to  work. 

Doubtless  no  further  explanation  is  needed 
to  account  for  the  immediate  success  of  John- 
son's labors  than  the  fact  of  his  prompt 
adjustment  to  the  plan  and  mind  of  God. 
Education  is  sometimes  disqualification 
where  it  ought  to  be  preparation  for  holy 
service.  Trained  scholars  sometimes  lose 
childlikeness  of  spirit  and  dependence  on 
God,  and  get  proud,  self-confident,  and  lean 
on  their  own  understanding.  The  strong  are 
prone  to  glory  in  their  own  strength,  the  rich 
in  their  wealth,  the  wise  in  their  sagacity,  the 
learned  in  their  knowledge ;  and  so  they  forget 
that  the  only  true  wisdom,  wealth,  or  glory  is 
in  understanding  and  knowing  God.  Here  was 
a  man  so  weak,  ignorant,  poor,  obscure,  and 
utterly  inadequate  for  any  great  achievement, 
that  he  had  no  resource  or  resort  but  to  trust 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  77 

in  Jehovah.  He  knew  he  was  an  earthen 
vessel,  frail  and  broken,  and  his  only  power 
must  be  found  in  a  capacity  for  conveyance 
of  a  blessing  not  his  own.  Whatever  be  the 
reason,  the  fact  is  that,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
had  scarcely  begun  his  work  in  this  worst  of 
all  fields  when  blessing  also  began  to  be  given. 
He  had  landed  at  Freetown  in  April ;  he  had 
come  to  Hogbrook  in  June ;  on  the  14:th  of  July 
distinct  showers  of  mercy  fell  on  the  newly 
sown  seed.  Family  prayers  were  held  between 
five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  but,  even 
so  early,  a  throng  of  natives  filled  the  house. 
He  read  and  explained  the  latter  part  of  the 
forty-sixth  chapter  of  the  prophecy  of  Jere- 
miah, a  passage  of  Scripture  so  appropriate  to 
his  surroundings  and  so  important  as  supply- 
ing another  key  to  his  life-work  that  we  here 
make  prominent  the  very  words  upon  which 
his  mind  was  fixed. 

Verse  11 :  "In  vain  shalt  thou  use  many  medicines ; 

For  thou  shalt  not  be  cured." 
Verse  15 :  "Why  are  thy  valiant  men  swept  away? 

They  stood  not, 

Because  the  Lord  did  drive  them." 

Then,  the  contrast,  in  verse  27 : 


78  SEl^EN    YE^RS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

"  But  fear  not  thou,  O  My  servant  Jacob, 

And  be  not  dismayed,  O  Israel : 

For,  behold,  I  will  save  thee  from  afar  off, 
'  And  thy  seed  from  the  land  of  their  captivity ; 

And  Jacob  shall  return, 

And  be  in  rest  and  at  ease, 

And  none  shall  make  him  afraid. 

Fear  thou  not,  O  Jacob,  .  .  .  for  I  am  with  thee." 

Such  was  the  divine  nutriment  on  which  the 
fainting  heart  of  this  simple  believer  and 
laborer  with  God  both  nourished  itself  into 
strength  and  fed  others. 

Two  hours  later  that  same  morning  three 
women  were  found  standing  at  the  door,  ask- 
ing to  "learn  Book";  and  at  ten  o'clock  a 
service  was  held,  at  which  Johnson  explained 
the  eighteenth  chapter  of  John,  dwelling  upon 
the  sufferings  of  Christ  as  the  divine  antidote 
for  human  sin  and  sorrow.  At  this  meeting 
the  whole  house,  and  even  the  piazza  and 
windows,  were  crowded,  and  some  were 
obliged  to  stand  in  the  yard.  Then  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  another  crowd  was 
addressed  on  Acts  ii.  36,  37 : 

"  Therefore  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  assuredly,  that 
God  hath  made  that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  crucified, 
both  Lord  and  Christ.   Now  when  they  hoard  this,  they  were 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  79 

pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said  unto  Peter  and  to  the  rest  of 
the  apostles,  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ?  " 

At  this  time  the  throng  was  too  great  to 
be  accommodated  within  range  of  his  voice. 
And  why  should  it  awaken  any  surprise  that 
God  owned  a  method  of  deahng  with  souls 
that  so  magnified  the  Word  of  His  grace,  and 
showed  so  diligent  a  search  to  find  the  exact 
medicine  whereby  the  disease  of  sin  should 
be  cured! 

Again,  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  a 
fourth  service  was  held,  the  house  and 
grounds  being  filled,  and  the  same  old  gospel 
being  magnified.  And  so  the  work  went  on 
from  day  to  day,  and  from  daybreak  until  far 
on  into  the  night.  He  who  thus  faithfully 
and  tirelessly  preached  the  Word  to  the  mul- 
titudes was  equally  faithful  in  dealing  with 
individual  souls,  thus  imitating  his  Master, 
who  spoke  to  those  whom  He  met  by  the 
way,  as  to  the  woman  at  the  well. 

We  have  seen  how  Saturday  evenings  were 
set  apart  for  these  assemblies  for  prayer  and 
testimony.  Only  a  few  had  yet  learned  how 
to  pray  in  public,  but  as  the  missionary  pastor 


80  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

heard  them  wrestling  with  God  for  a  blessing, 
and  listened  to  their  simple  pleadings  and  to 
their  touching  tales  of  God's  dealings,  he  ex- 
perienced such  joy  as  turned  that  wilderness 
of  Sierra  Leone  into  an  Eden,  and,  like  Paul  in 
his  rapture  to  the  third  heaven,  whether  he 
were  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body  he  could 
not  tell.  The  climate  was  so  unhealthy — the 
worst  in  the  world — that  he  felt  his  time  must 
be  short;  but,  though  at  times  physically 
prostrate,  he  could  not  think  of  returning  to 
England,  and  continually  blessed  God  that, 
at  whatever  cost  of  sacrifice,  he  had  been  sent 
by  Him  on  such  an  errand. 

The  church  building  had  now  become  so 
crowded  that  the  governor  of  the  colony,  who 
frequently  attended  the  services,  ordered  a 
gallery  built  as  soon  as  possible,  thus  nearly 
doubling  the  capacity  of  the  house.  And 
before  October  one  hundred  and  sixty-four 
boys  were  enrolled  in  the  school,  upward  of 
twenty  pupils  were  in  the  family  school,  and 
more  than  fifty  adults  in  the  evening  classes. 
We  have  thus  been  careful  to  follow  every 
step  and  stage  of  this  great  work  of  grace 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE   OF  RAIN  81 

from  its  beginning,  for  these  were  the  base- 
blocks  on  which  that  spiritual  edifice  was 
reared  which  still  remains  almost  without  a 
parallel  in  mission  history. 

Very  marked  were  the  dealings  of  Grod  with 
the  conscience  where  an  observer  might  have 
thought  conscience  was  dead.  Early  in  No- 
vember Mr.  Johnson  had  written  to  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  of  several  persons 
who  complained  of  their  "bad  hearts,"  and 
who  gave  such  clear  proofs  of  grace  that  no 
one  could  forbid  their  baptism,  and  reference 
has  been  already  made  to  their  reception  as 
converts.  Evidence  now  accumulated  that 
God's  Spirit  was  at  work  generally  upon  the 
consciences  of  the  Hogbrook  slaves,  and  com- 
pelling repentance  at  cost  of  much  renuncia- 
tion of  sin.  Thus,  one  young  man  who  sought 
baptism,  but  was  found  to  be  living  in  sinful 
relations  with  a  woman,  after  the  loose  fash- 
ion prevalent  in  the  colony,  being  rejected, 
went  away  with  a  sad  face  as  though  prefer- 
ring to  live  in  sin ;  but  before  the  next  Sunday 
he  returned,  and,  sitting  down  with  his  face 
to  the  wall,  gave  a  striking  account  of  the 


82  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Lord's  dealing  with  liim.  When  he  was  told 
that  he  might  be  baptized  and  come  to  the 
Lord's  table  only  on  condition  of  his  marriage 
with  the  woman  whom  he  had  led  into  sin, 
he  joyfully  consented  and  at  once  complied, 
being  married,  baptized,  and  admitted  to  the 
Lord's  Supper  within  three  hours;  and  no 
sooner  were  these  parties  married  than  the 
wife  gave  proof  that  the  Spirit  was  at  work 
also  in  her  heart. 

About  the  same  time  another  encouraging 
sign  appeared.  Dr.  Macaulay  Wilson,  who 
was  an  attending  physician  of  the  negroes 
and  himself  also  a  colored  man,  after  often 
being  an  attendant  at  public  worship,  came 
to  Johnson,  confessing  his  sin  and  seeking 
salvation.  He  acknowledged  that,  from  the 
time  when  he  had  heard  him  speak  upon  the 
words,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,"  he  had  been  unable 
to  find  rest;  that  he  had  often  started  out 
purposing  to  acquaint  him  with  his  soul's  an- 
xieties, but  had  by  pride  been  kept  back  from 
such  confession.  Now,  however,  he  made 
a  full  acknowledgment  of  the  fact  that  he 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE   OF  RAIN  83 

had  been  grievously  and  notoriously  wicked, 
and  asked  spiritual  counsel.   This  conversion 
was  an  incident  of  great  importance  in  the 
history  of  this  mission,  for  Dr.  Wilson  was 
the  son  of  King  George  of  Yongroo,  and  his 
accepted  heir,  and  had  great  influence  with 
the  Bullom  people.     Thus  the  gospel  found 
its  way  once  more  into  "  Caesar's  household." 
This  colored  doctor,  this  son  of  the  Bullom 
king,  became  a  very  great  help  and  encour- 
agement to  Johnson,  growing  in  grace  and 
knowledge  of  Christ  and  capacity  for  service. 
He  acted  as  clerk  on  Sunday,  and  in  the 
absence  of  the  missionary  kept  the  fires  burn- 
ing on  the  altar  of  family  worship,  and  himself 
made  most  affecting  and  effective  exhorta- 
tions. 

The  new  gallery  was  now  added  to  the 
church,  holding  two  hundred  more,  and  the 
schools  both  of  children  and  adults  made  such 
progress  that  as  early  as  February  14,  1817, 
they  were  able  to  report  a  total  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  scholars. 

There  were  now  masons,  bricklayers,  car- 
penters,   shingle-makers,    smiths,    sawyers. 


84  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

tailors,  and  brickmakers  connected  with  tlie 
colony,  which  became  after  a  while  a  model 
of  thrift  and  industry. 

Smallpox  visited  the  settlement,  but  the 
boys  and  girls  were  promptly  inoculated,  as 
were  most  of  the  population,  and  the  only 
fatal  cases  in  the  school  were  those  of  two 
boys  and  one  girl,  though  several  of  the  people 
who  refused  to  be  inoculated  fell  victims. 
The  little  girl  who  died  gave  every  reason  for 
confidence  that  she  was  a  Christian  disciple. 
She  lamented  very  much  over  her  wicked 
heart,  and  prayed  to  Jesus  as  her  only  refuge, 
and  was  baptized.  At  her  funeral  Johnson 
spoke  on  Amos  iv.  12 :  "  Prepare  to  meet  thy 
God."  She  was  much  beloved  by  those  who 
knew  her,  and  about  three  hundred  followed 
the  body  to  the  grave,  and  the  occasion  made 
a  deep  impression.  Many  of  the  children  at 
Kissy,  however,  fell  victims  to  the  scourge — 
above  one  hundred  of  them. 

Crowds  continued  to  attend  family  worship, 
upward  of  two  hundred  being  habitually  j)res- 
ent,  and  sometimes  in  the  evening  the  church 
building,  though  enlarged,  was  almost  full. 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  85 

It  was  March  31, 1817,  when  Johnson  was 
set  apart  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Luther- 
an Church,  the  humble  man  being  not  a  Uttle 
distressed  by  doubts  and  fears  as  to  his  capa- 
city to  exercise  the  functions  of  an  ordained 
minister;  but  the  Holy  Spirit  continued  so 
manifestly  and  abundantly  to  bless  his  work 
that  all  his  questionings  were  finally  silenced. 
1  Corinthians  i.  25,  26,  removed  all  remaining 
doubt;  or,  had  any  doubt  remained,  on  the 
following  Easter  Sunday  Grod  set  His  seal 
upon   this   newly  ordained   minister  while 
speaking  to  a  crowded  congregation  on  John 
xi.  25,  26.    At  this  time  his  hearers  were  so 
visibly  moved  that  many  wept  and  prayed 
aloud  for  mercy.     These  experiences  were 
repeated  precisely  in  the  afternoon,  when  he 
spoke  on  1  Corinthians  xv.  55;  and  in  the 
evening,  while  engaged  in  prayer,  crying  and 
praying  became  so  general  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  off  and  give  out  a  hymn.   Even 
this  was  of  no  purpose ;  he  besought  them  to 
be  still,  and  gave  out  another  hymn,  but  was 
unable  to  restore  quiet ;  the  greater  part  of 
the  congregation  were  on  their  knees  crying 


86  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

aloud  for  pardon.  What  wonder  if  Johnson 
found  it  impossible  to  express  with  tongue 
or  pen  the  feelings  that  overcame  him,  and, 
like  Titus  Coan  in  the  work  at  Hilo  and  Puna 
not  many  years  after,  he  was  obliged  to  leave 
his  congregation  in  this  state,  bowed  down  in 
tears  and  cries  before  God!  As  he  passed 
toward  the  door  he  saw  a  man  on  his  knees, 
knocking  with  his  hands  on  the  boards  and 
crying,  "  Lord  Jesus,  me  no  let  you  go ;  first 
pardon  my  sins."  As  he  went  home,  quite 
convinced  that  God  was  so  dealing  with  them 
that  he  could  only  leave  Him  to  work,  he 
heard  nothing  but  cries  in  every  direction 
for  the  space  of  about  fifteen  minutes.  He 
was  obliged  to  use  means  to  prevent  further 
disturbances,  for  the  simple  mention  of  the 
name  of  Jesus  immediately  evoked  these  out- 
cries; and  he  gave  directions  to  the  door- 
keepers that  when  more  than  one  person  was 
thus  affected  he  must  remove  such  from  the 
building,  that  the  meeting  might  proceed 
without  disturbance.  Strange  experiences, 
indeed,  when  a  minister  can  keep  a  service  of 
divine  worship  sufficiently  quiet  for  himself 


SOUND  OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  87 

to  be  heard  only  by  removing  stricken  souls 
from  tbe  congregation !  Yet  so  marked  were 
the  movings  of  the  Spirit  of  God  that  there 
was  seldom  a  Sunday  in  which  the  door- 
keepers were  not  compelled  to  use  such  means, 
that  the  outcries  of  a  few  might  not  make 
profit  impossible  to  the  many. 

The  number  of  communicants  had  reached 
seventy  before  the  1st  of  March,  and  the 
scholars  in  the  school  nearly  four  hundred. 
The  people  were  so  eager  to  hear  the  Word 
of  Grod  that  on  Sundays  they  came  an  hour 
before  service  to  secure  a  seat,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  enlarge  the  church  into  a  cruci- 
form shape,  which  nearly  doubled  the  room. 

So  full  of  striking  incidents  is  the  short 
career  of  Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone  that  the 
most  that  can  be  done  is  to  select  some  of  the 
more  marked  examples  of  the  operation  of 
God's  grace. 

For  example,  in  the  daily  evening  school 
six  men  and  three  women  were  reading  the 
Testament,  and  one  of  the  men  was  asked 
how  he  liked  his  new  book.  His  reply  was, 
"  I  cannot  thank  the  Lord  Jesus  enough  for 


88  SEyEN    YE^RS   IN  SIERR/1   LEONE 

this  good  book,  for  I  have  seen  myself  in  ity 
Unconsciously  to  himself,  he  was  gi\^ng  a 
practical  comment  upon  the  words  of  James, 
who  wrote  of  him  who  looketh  into  the  i^er- 
fect  law  of  liberty,  and  continueth  looking 
until  he  seeth  what  manner  of  man  he  is. 
This  humble  black  man  found  in  the  Word 
of  God  the  magic  mirror  which  reflects  every 
man's  character  and  history  and  destiny. 

And  so,  every  entry  in  Johnson's  journal 
and  every  letter  he  wrote  make  record  of 
the  wonderful  workings  of  God;  though  he 
was  not  without  trials  of  faith  and  patience, 
even  as  Christ  forewarned  us.  His  dear  wife 
was  so  ill  that  for  days  she  seemed  to  be 
djing,  though  mercifully  spared.  There  were 
constant  accessions  to  the  church  of  such  as 
were  manifestly  being  saved,  and  the  experi- 
ences and  inquiries  of  these  simple-minded 
converts  might  fill  a  volume  with  most  fasci- 
nating details,  all  the  more  interesting  be- 
cause the  people  had  been  sunk  to  such 
dej^ths  of  degradation.  Johnson  noticed  one 
woman  who  attended  morning  and  evening 
prayer  and  was  almost  always  in  tears;  he 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE   OF  RAIN  89 

thought  this  strange,  as  she  understood  so 
little  English  that  there  seemed  to  be  little 
chance  for  the  gospel  to  impress  her.  On 
asking  her  why  she  wept,  she  pointed  to  her 
heart  and  said,  "  Here !  here !  "  She  felt  like 
the  publican  who  smote  upon  his  breast  as  he 
cried  for  mercy,  as  though  all  possible  sin 
were  crowded  together  there  in  her  own  heart. 
Johnson,  as  he  beheld  such  scenes,  could  only 
recall  the  promise,  "I  will  work,  and  who 
shall  let  it  % "  And  so  plain  was  God's  hand 
that  he  could  only  say,  "  Lord,  carry  on  the 
work  even  as  Thou  hast  begun  it." 

The  community  thus  being  provided  with 
the  gospel,  this  godly  man  sought  to  organize 
it  into  a  more  prosperous  and  harmonious 
state ;  and  one  of  his  first  steps  was  to  start 
a  Benefit  Society,  the  effect  of  which  was 
greatly  to  increase  the  health  and  happiness, 
mutual  sympathy  and  harmony,  of  its  mem- 
bers. After  a  discourse  on  the  goodness  of 
God  in  sending  missionaries  to  Africa,  he  sug- 
gested that  they  should  form  a  little  society 
for  the  relief  of  their  sick  members,  and  that 
each  one  of  them  should  subscribe  a  halfpenny 


90  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

a  week.  The  response  was  immediate,  and 
one  of  them  said,  "  Dat  be  very  good  t'iug, 
broders ;  s'pose  one  be  sick,  all  be  sick ;  s'pose 
one  be  well,  all  be  well  "—a  very  simple  but 
practical  comment  upon  Paul's  words  in  1 
Corinthians  xii.  12-27 :  "  Whether  one  mem- 
ber suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it,"  etc. 

One  who  had  recently  been  brought  out  of 
the  depths  of  sin  being  asked,  "  How  is  your 
heart  now!"  replied,  "Massa,  my  heart  no 
live  here  now,  my  heart  live  there,"  pointing 
upward.  Another,  being  asked  why  he  wept, 
said,  "  God  came  into  my  heart,  and  my  heart 
bad  too  much,  that  it  made  me  cry." 

Conversion  compelled,  as  everj^where,  giv- 
ing up  of  idols.  Gree-grees,  and  the  like  charms 
or  fetishes  to  which  the  people  cling  in  their 
superstitious  state,  were  brought  f  oi'ward  and 
put  into  the  fire,  like  the  occult  books  of  the 
Ephesian  magians. 

Already,  also,  the  workman  began  to  lind 
his  compensation.  When  Johnson,  partly 
through  illness  and  overwork,  fell  at  times 
into  depression,  God  used  these  simple  con- 
verts to  teach  him  and  comfort  his  soul.   For 


SOUND  OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  91 

instance,  Jolin  Sandy  said,  "Once  me  see 
light,  but  now  me  have  no  light,  no  peace ; 
my  bad  heart  bring  me  into  all  these  troubles, 
and  I  do  not  know  what  I  must  do;  I  can- 
not tell  whether  I  am  on  the  way  to  hell  or 
heaven."    His  teacher  saw  how  these  simple 
believers  were  tried,  like  himself,  with  con- 
stantly  recurring   depressions   and  doubts, 
and  so,  whether  well  or  ill,  doubting  or  con- 
fident,  this   indefatigable  worker  went  on 
with  his  labors. 

His  simple  methods  with  these  people  may 
be  seen  by  a  further  illustration.    On  Novem- 
ber 17,  1817,  at  noon,  he  spoke  to  the  girls 
and  asked  if  any  of  them  could  tell  what  they 
had  heard  the  day  before.     Hannah  Cammel, 
an  usher,  said,  "I  heard  you  say  that  if  any 
man,  woman,  boy,  or  girl  died  without  Jesus 
Christ  they  must  go  to  hell."    "  What  do  you 
think,  Hannah !    Are  you  with  Jesus  Christ, 
or  are  you  without  Him!"    "I  am  without 
Him,  sir."     "Did  you  ever  pray  to  Him^' 
"  Yes  sir."    "  Why  or  what  for  did  you  pray 
to  Him?"     "To  save  me  from  my  sins,  sir." 
"Do  you  know  what  Jesus  Christ  did  for 


92  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

sinners  ? "  "  Ho  came  into  the  world  to  save 
them,  sir."  "  Well,  then,  if  He  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,  and  you  say  you  are  a 
sinner.  He  came  to  save  you."  She  appeared 
so  affected  by  this  truth  that  she  could  speak 
no  more. 

We  have  before  referred  to  those  seductive 
snares  of  fetish-worshipers  known  as  gree- 
grees.  On  September  10,  1818,  a  man  from 
Cockle  Bay  came  into  town  offering  these 
things  for  sale,  and  was  brought  to  Johnson  as 
a  sort  of  malefactor.  The  missionary  reminded 
his  captors  and  accusers  that  such  were  some 
of  them,  not  long  before  in  the  same  darkness 
of  superstition,  and  taught  them  to  pity 
rather  than  to  despise  and  hastily  judge  and 
condemn  the  evil-doer ;  then,  quietly  turning 
to  the  vender  of  these  devil's  wares,  he  coun- 
seled him  not  to  come  to  Regent's  Town 
with  his  worthless  trash,  but,  if  he  would 
persist  in  such  business,  to  seek  some  better 
market. 

About  an  hour  later  a  whole  box  of  gi*ee- 
grees  was  brought  in,  some  of  which  were 
both  rare  and  valuable,  such  as  even  John- 


SOUND   OF  ABUNDANCE  OF  RAIN  93 

son  had  never  before  seen;  but  these  boys 
and  girls,  like  the  converts  of  Ephesus  again, 
with  great  joy  and  acclamations  committed 
them  to  the  flames. 

Thus,  to  this  praying  man  was  committed 
the  power  to  open  the  windows  of  heaven ; 
and  the  cloud  which  at  first  was  no  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand  had  already  overspread 
the  whole  sky,  and  there  was  a  sound  of 
abundance  of  rain  in  the  moral  desert  of 
Sierra  Leone. 


CHAPTER  V 

FmST-FRUITS  UNTO   GOD 

That  devout  man  who  is  the  founder  of  the 
China  Inland  Mission  has  well  reminded  us 
that,  though  Satan,  the  hinderer,  may  "  build 
a  hedge  about  us  "  to  restrain  our  holy  activ- 
ity, he  cannot "  roof  us  in  and  keep  us  from 
looking  up."  Nothing  need  prevent  a  child 
of  God  from  praying,  and  praying  always 
brings  every  other  best  blessing. 

Elijah  "prayed,  and  the  heavens  gave  rain, 
and  the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit."  That 
is  a  typical  history  of  all  true  re\'ivals  or 
refreshings  from  on  high.  Some  one  has 
prayed,  and  showers  of  blessing  always  de- 
scend when  prayers  ascend.  Johnson  knew 
how  to  pray,  and  his  spirit  of  intercession 
and  supplication  proved  contagious  in  Sierra 
Leone,  so  that  even  these  slaves  at  Hogbrook 

94 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  95 

learned  to  prevail  with  God.  Among  the  first- 
fruits  of  faithful  gospel  teaching  was  this 
boldness  in  coming  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
Early  in  the  morning,  while  it  was  yet  dark, 
January  15, 1818,  Johnson  was  awakened  by 
hearing  from  some  distance  the  sound  of 
prayer.  He  rose  and  went  out  on  the  ve- 
randa, but  could  distinguish  only  a  few 
words  until,  the  prayer  being  ended,  a  num- 
ber of  voices  blending  in  sacred  song,  he 
heard  the  familiar  doxology : 

"  To  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost." 

Then  followed  another  prayer,  loud  and  clear 
enough  to  be  distinguished  as  the  voice  of  a 
lad,  who  for  ten  or  twelve  minutes  poured 
out  his  very  soul  before  God,  somewhat  thus : 

"Lord  Jesus,  my  heart  too  bad,  bad  too 
much.  Me  want  to  love  you,  me  want  to 
serve  you;  bad  heart  not  let  me.  0  Lord 
Jesus,  me  can't  make  me  good.  Take  away 
bad  heart ;  give  me  new  heart.  Me  sin  every 
day;  pardon  my  sin.  0  Lord  Jesus,  make 
me  sin  no  more." 

There  were  other  prayers,  whose  utterances 


96  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

were  not  so  distinct,  but  in  them  all  tlie  name 
of  Jesus  was  as  ointment  poured  forth.  These 
young  seekers  after  God  were  holding  a 
meeting  by  moonlight,  for  as  yet  it  had  not 
dawned,  and,  like  the  psalmist,  they  with 
their  prayers  and  praises  "prevented  the 
dawning  of  the  morning." 

With  emotions  that  found  vent  only  in 
sobs  and  tears,  their  pastor  went  back  to 
bed,  but  not  to  sleep.  Overawed  and  over- 
whelmed, a  holy  excitement  forbade  slumber. 
In  those  sounds  of  prayer  he  had  heard  the 
footfalls  of  Grod, — the  sound  of  a  rushing, 
mighty  wind  from  heaven,  precursor  of  a 
new  Pentecost, — and  he  was  prepared  for 
new  and  more  vivid  signs  that  God  was  nigh, 
at  the  very  doors.  He  was  in  that  strange, 
unearthly  mood  of  expectancy  when  one 
waits  in  silent,  speechless  awe  for  greater 
and  more  general  manifestations  of  the  Holy 
Spii'it's  presence,  and  knowing  not  what  form 
they  may  assume,  can  only  hush  his  own 
breathing. 

Of  course  such  an  expectant  spirit  is  never 
disappointed.     Diligent  inquiry  failed  to  dis- 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  97 

close  who  they  were  that  he  had  overheard 
engaged  in  this  moonlight  meeting,  but  three 
days  later,  at  the  morning  service,  during 
prayer,  a  number  of  persons  present  were 
overtaken  with  a  suspicious  drowsiness.  Ob- 
serving this,  the  missionary  gently  cautioned 
his  hearers  to  beware  of  sluggish  habits  of 
praying,  reminding  them  that  it  is  not  the 
formal,  listless  petition  that  Grod  hears,  but 
such  asking  as  engages  the  whole  heart  and 
is  spiritually  earnest.  As  he  pressed  the  mat- 
ter upon  the  consciences  of  such  as  had  been 
sleeping  while  others  were  praying,  several 
cried  aloud,  and  such  confusion  was  created 
by  those  who  were  thus  overcome  of  emotion 
that  a  hymn  was  sung  while  the  doorkeepers 
removed  them.  Trembling  and  unable  to 
walk  or  even  stand,  they  had  to  be  carried 
out  literally,  in  the  arms  of  others,  before 
sufficient  quiet  was  restored. 

These  violent  ebullitions  of  feeling  became 
common  occurrences,  and  sometimes  occa- 
sioned harsh  criticism  on  the  part  of  refined 
people  who  witnessed  or  heard  of  them.  But 
those  who  have  studied  the  history  of  reviv- 


98  SE^EN    YEARS   IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

als  well  know  that  such  manifestations  have 
often  been  connected  with  undoubted  and 
marked  movements  of  the  Spirit.  Such  occa- 
sional violent  outbreaks  of  emotion  we  can- 
not afford  to  despise  as  hypocritical  or  de- 
nounce as  artificial  and  hysterical.  Periods 
of  spiritual  awakening  have  too  often  been 
attended  by  such  physical  phenomena  for  us 
to  pass  harsh  and  hasty  judgments  upon 
them.  Very  notably,  in  the  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  and  in  Ire- 
land half  a  century  later,  similar  signs  fol- 
lowed. At  Hilo  and  Puna,  Titus  Coan,  as  we 
have  before  hinted,  had  frequently  to  stop 
preaching,  praying,  and  even  singing,  while 
he  beheld  a  vast  congregation  of  five  thou- 
sand so  broken  down  with  contrition  for  sin 
that  scores  and  hundreds  of  them  fainted  and 
fell  to  the  ground  in  a  swoon. 

Like  Mr.  Coan  after  him,  Johnson  did  noth- 
ing either  to  excite  or  to  encourage  such  ex- 
cessive emotion,  but,  in  fact,  rather  sought 
to  suppress  such  outbursts,  speaking  against 
them  as  unseemly  interruptions ;  but  he  found 
that  the  most  he  could  do  was  to  moderate  or 


FIRST-FRUITS  UNTO   COD  99 

modify  what  neither  he  nor  his  hearers  were 
able  to  control  or  suppress.  Asa  Mahan, 
Charles  G.  Finney,  Henry  Grattan  Guinness, 
and  others  who  have  witnessed  these  cyclonic 
storms  of  feeling,  like  Mr.  Coan  and  Mr.  John- 
son, became  satisfied  at  last  that  in  some  mys- 
terious way  they  were  due  to,  or  at  least  con- 
nected with,  the  Spirit's  work.  No  man  long 
engages  in  successful  evangelistic  labors  with- 
out learning  that  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  like 
the  wind,  bloweth  where  and  as  He  listeth, 
and  we  hear  the  sound  thereof — sometimes  a 
gentle  murmur  or  soft  zephyr,  sometimes  a 
hurricane  roar  or  a  tornado  blast,  but,  whether 
in  whispers  or  in  thunders,  alike  mysterious, 
divine,  independent  of  man,  uncontrollable  by 
man,  inexplicable  to  man. 

There  is  another  law  of  revivals  which 
Johnson  found  at  work  in  Regent's  Town. 
Whenever  and  wherever  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
supernaturally  and  marvelously  working,  the 
spirits  of  evil  are  doubly  active,  so  that  a 
decided  outburst  of  genuine  religious  life  is 
commonly  the  signal  for  an  outbreak  of 
scandalous  sin.    Mr.  Kelly,  the  schoolmaster, 


100  SEVEN    YE^IRS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

had  to  be  dismissed  and  sent  back  in  disgrace 
to  Freetown,  the  governor  so  fully  approving 
Mr.  Johnson's  course  in  the  matter  that  ho 
determined  no  longer  to  employ  Mr.  Kelly  in 
any  capacity.  Besides  this  serious  drawback, 
the  African  fever,  which  has  been  the  great 
foe  of  missions  to  the  Dark  Continent  and  so 
fatal  to  hundreds  of  workers,  again  laid  Mr. 
Johnson  prostrate;  in  fact,  his  symptoms 
were  alarming ;  but  his  life  was  spared. 

As  he  was  beginning  to  rally  from  this  at- 
tack of  illness,  a  woman  ai)plied  for  baptism 
who  had  already  done  so  a  score  of  times. 
She  could  only  say,  in  the  broken  dialect 
that  became  so  precious  as  the  vehicle  of  the 
Spirit,  "  My  bad  heart  follow  me  all  the  time ; 
me  can't  do  no  good — heart  too  bad — will  not 
let  me.  Me  want  to  serve  Jesus,  but  me  no 
sabby  how  [know  how],  me  too  much  'fraid. 
Suppose  me  die?  Me  go  to  fire — me  been 
bad  too  much."  When  asked  what  she  meant 
by  her  bad  heart  following  her  always,  her 
reply  was,  "Me  no  want  to  do  bad,  but  me 
heart  always  do  want  to  do  bad,  and  so  fol- 
low me  always." 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  101 

In  a  few  cases  the  simple  utterances  of 
these  ignorant  negroes  are  here  recorded, 
partly  because  they  give  completeness  to  the 
narrative,  partly  because  they  lend  vividness 
to  the  portraiture,  and  partly  because  in  this 
very  absence  of  the  more  refined  and  cultured 
forms  of  expression  we  have  an  additional 
proof  of  genuineness.  Obviously  we  detect 
here  no  traces  of  the  stereotyped  phrases  of 
the  church  catechism  or  the  theological  sys- 
tem. This  is  simply  the  dialect  of  the  uni- 
versal man.  In  the  seventh  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  we  have  the  same 
confession  in  substance,  only  framed  in  more 
elegant  language:  "For  that  which  I  do  I 
allow  not :  for  what  I  would,  that  do  I  not ; 
but  what  I  hate,  that  do  I.  .  .  .  The  evil 
which  I  would  not,  that  I  do.  ...  I  see  an- 
other law  in  my  members,  warring  against 
the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin." 

Here  is  one  of  the  evidences  of  Christian- 
ity: from  pole  to  pole,  from  sunrise  to  sun- 
set, whatever  be  the  clime,  color,  class,  or 
caste,    wherever    the    gospel    reaches    and 


102  SEVEN  YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

touches  human  souls  the  results  are  essen- 
tially the  same.  In  the  mirror  of  the  divine 
Word  and  Spirit  heart  answers  to  heart,  as 
in  water  face  answereth  to  face.  Both  in  sin 
and  in  salvation  there  is  one  common  experi- 
ence, however  variously  expressed. 

Even  at  the  early  stage  of  Mr.  Johnson's 
ministry  at  Regent's  Town  other  tokens  of 
divine  co-working  were  not  wanting.  Con- 
viction of  sin  was  wi'ought,  not  in  open 
transgressors  only,  but  in  converted  men  and 
women,  who  saw  and  lamented  their  coldness 
and  indifference,  became  acutely  and  pain- 
fully sensible  of  their  inconsistencies  and 
deficiencies,  and  yearned  for  more  holiness 
and  usefulness.  The  public  services  were  so 
thronged  that  it  became  necessary  to  remove 
a  partition  wall  and  so  again  double  the  seat- 
ing capacity,  but  the  audience-room  was  no 
sooner  enlarged  than  it  was  again  filled. 

Deep  conviction  of  sin  and  contrition  for  sin 
were  so  common  as  to  be  quite  general,  and 
one  instance  must  suffice  as  representative  of 
many,  for  every  day  was  full  of  like  inci- 
dents, and  history  was  making  fast. 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  103 

Hannah  Cammel,  the  usher  in  the  girls' 
school,  who  now  gave  such  evidence  of  re- 
generation that  Johnson  could  not  hesitate 
about  receiving  her  into  membership,  had 
previously  such  deep  distress  on  account  of 
her  sins  that  she  declared  that  she  had  no 
rest  day  nor  night.  Like  the  psalmist,  she 
felt  her  iniquities  too  many  for  her,  and  she 
could  not  look  up.  She  actually  believed  her- 
self the  "chief  of  sinners."  Her  patient  teacher 
could  only  turn  her  eyes  to  Him  who  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  and  pray 
that  the  same  divine  Spirit  who  had  shown 
her  her  great  sins  would  also  show  her  the 
great  Sin-bearer.  Only  He  who  pricks  the 
heart  until  we  cry,  "  What  shall  I  do  ? "  can 
withdraw  His  sharp  arrow,  and  in  withdraw- 
ing it  leave  behind  in  the  wounded  conscience 
His  soothing  salve,  the  Balm  of  Gilead. 

As  Johnson  watched  God's  wonder-working 
among  these  debased  and  degraded  tribes,  he 
marveled  anew  at  the  grace  that  touches  all 
sinners  alike,  imparts  essentially  the  same 
experience  of  salvation  to  all,  and  makes  the 
same  fruits  of  faith  and  love  to  grow  in  all. 


104  SEVEN    YE/tRS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

This  devoted  servant  of  Grod  found  that  even 
saints  have  to  wrestle  against  principalities 
and  powers.  Trials  and  temptations  seemed 
to  multii3ly  and  intensify  in  proportion  as 
"flesh  and  blood"  seemed  subdued  or  the 
Spirit's  work  became  deeper  rooted  and  wider 
spread. 

For  instance,  one  of  his  communicants  was 
determined  to  marry  an  unconverted  girl,  and 
he  felt  constrained  to  oppose  it,  and  quoted  to 
him  the  divine  injunction,  "Be  not  unequally 
yoked  together  with  unbelievers,"  and  bade 
him  pray  much  before  taking  such  a  step. 
But,  being  in  no  mood  to  accept  such  advice, 
his  passion's  fires  quite  swept  away  both  his 
sound  judgment  and  his  self-control,  and  he 
angrily  demanded  that  Mr.  Johnson  should 
perform  the  ceremony.  Too  conscientious  to 
be  a  party  to  what  he  regarded  as  an  unscrip- 
tural  union,  the  patient  pastor  remonstrated, 
but  in  vain.  The  man  bade  him  erase  his  name 
from  the  church  roll,  as  he  would  no  longer 
have  anything  to  do  with  either  church  or 
pastor. 

The  tender-hearted  missionary  was  gi'eatly 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   COD  105 

grieved,  lest  the  whole  affair  should  become 
known  and  prove  a  public  scandal  and  dis- 
grace. When  persuaded  still  to  attend  family 
prayer  by  "William  Tamba,  one  of  Johnson's 
helpers,  the  man's  face  exhibited  such  hard- 
ness and  wore  such  a  diabolical  expression 
that  many  observed  and  spoke  of  it.  At  the 
same  time  some  idle  women,  who,  though 
communicants,  were  busybodies  in  other 
men's  matters,  were  going  from  house  to 
house,  peddling  gossip  and  speaking  things 
they  ought  not.  There  was  also  a  quarrel 
between  a  man  and  his  wife,  leading  to  blows, 
and  caused  by  a  slanderous  report  which  had 
reached  his  ears  that  she  was  going  about 
from  house  to  house  while  he  was  at  work. 

Poor  Johnson  !  his  head  was  as  waters  and 
his  eyes  a  fountain  of  tears,  for  he  wept  day 
and  night,  as  he  beheld  one  of  Christ's  dis- 
ciples, who  had  been  much  beloved,  aflame 
with  an  unholy  passion  and  apostatizing  for 
its  sake;  another  beating  his  own  wife  in 
unjust  anger,  and  idle  slanderers,  whose 
tongues  were  set  on  fire  of  hell,  kindhng 
heartbui'nings  in  peaceful  homes. 


106  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

He  wlio  awhile  before  could  not  sleep  for 
joy,  now  could  not  for  grief  and  anxiety.  All 
this  vicarious  sorrow  and  caretaking  induced 
morbid  spiritual  states,  so  that  at  times  he 
began  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  his  con- 
verts, and  even  his  own  saved  state.  The 
moment  the  devil  finds  a  disciple  dropping 
his  shield  of  faith,  he  is  more  than  ready 
with  his  fiery  darts.  This  servant  of  God  got 
disheartened,  and  so  distrustful.  "  Are  these 
people  all  hypocrites  ? "  he  asked,  "  and  am  I 
one  myself?  All  my  past  feelings  and  ex- 
periences seem  at  times  but  my  own  imagin- 
ings or  a  delusive  dream." 

There  is  a  comfort,  after  all,  in  human 
frailty.  "Elijah  was  a  man  of  like  passions 
as  we  are;"  that  prince  of  God,  who  pre- 
vailed to  open  and  shut  heaven's  flood-gates, 
was  but  a  man  like  ourselves.  Even  Jesus 
Himself  had  His  hours  of  deep  darkness,  as 
in  Gethsemane  and  the  crisis  of  atonement 
on  Calvary.  The  Book  of  Psalms  is  given  to 
disciples  as  a  mirror  of  universal  experience : 
every  child  of  God  sees  himself  reflected 
there,  and  every  possible  mood  and  frame  of 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO  GOD  107 

joy  or  sorrow,  hope  or  despair,  ecstasy  or 
apathy,  finds  there  both  a  response  and,  if 
need  be,  a  remedy.  It  is  a  harp  of  a  thousand 
strings,  and  any  chords  of  f  eehng  that  vibrate 
in  our  experience  may  be  heard  by  him  who 
hstens  to  the  dirges,  plaints,  wails,  or  anthems 
and  choral  shouts  of  the  inspired  psalmist. 

If  Johnson,  like  other  men,  turned  at  times 
toward  the  darkness,  he  always  returned  to 
the  true  Light.  A  faithful  biographical  sketch, 
like  a  true  portrait,  leaves  out  nothing ;  even 
the  infirmities  and  sins  of  God's  people  have 
their  lesson.  This  man  of  Ood,  blessed  in 
his  work  for  souls  as  few  others  have  ever 
been,  was  subject  to  like  temptations  as 
others.  His  prayers  brought  down  copious 
rains  after  long  drought,  and  yet  he  was  made 
after  the  frail  human  pattern.  Saints  are 
perfect  only  as  they  are  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus. 

His  sermons  were  a  sort  of  journal  index- 
ing his  mental  states  and  reflecting  his  spirit- 
ual habits.  About  this  time  he  preached 
on  Matthew  xiv.  12:  "And  went  and  told 
Jesus."  It  was  because  the  dove  of  his  own 
heart,  circling  over  restless  waters  and  find- 


108  SEl^EN    YEARS   IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

ing  no  pei'cli,  in  its  fartliest  flight  never  quite 
lost  sight  of  the  ark,  and  was  still  under  its 
attraction  and  sway,  that  it  invariabl}^  flut- 
tered back  to  God's  bosom.  He  went  and 
told  Jesus,  and  so  he  taught  his  people  to 
go,  like  John's  sorrowing  disciples,  and  pour 
their  complaints  and  anxieties  into  the  Mas- 
ter's ear. 

If  some  of  his  converts  gave  him  anxiety, 
others  bore  unmistakable  fruits  of  the  Spirit. 
When  William  Tamba  lost  by  death  a  bullock 
and  a  goat,  which  constituted  the  bulk  of  his 
worldly  estate,  he  only  said,  like  Job,  "He 
that  gave  them  took  them  away,"  and  under 
his  heavy  losses  seemed  so  cheerful  that  his 
joy  in  God  was  more  marked  in  his  adversity 
than  in  his  prosperity,  and  made  a  singular 
impression  on  all  who  knew  him. 

The  simple  and  broken  utterances  of  these 
untaught  children  of  the  Dark  Continent 
were  so  touching  and  so  striking  that  their 
pastor  wrote  many  of  them  down  in  his 
journal.  Some  of  them  are  worthy  of  preser- 
vation as  part  of  this  wonderful  story  of  mis- 
sions. 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  109 

"Me  heart  too  much  trouble — sometimes 
so  hard,  will  not  let  me  pray.  Hope  the 
Lord  Jesus  teach  me  more  and  more  to  love 
Him  and  serve  Him.  I  poor  guilty  sinner; 
thank  God,  He  send  Jesus  to  save  me,  poor 
sinner." 

"Me  heart  remember  all  them  bad  things 
me  do  before ;  me  bad  too  much." 

"  Wicked  things  trouble  me  too  much ;  me 
want  to  do  good,  but  wicked  heart  no  let  me. 
Me  heart  run  awa  [about]  all  this  week.  Sup- 
pose me  pray,  me  heart  run  to  my  country 
— all  about.  Sometimes  them  things  me  no 
want  to  remember  more  come  into  my  heart, 
and  then  me  can't  say  any  more  but,  '  Jesus, 
have  mercy  on  me,  poor  thing.'  Me  no  sabby 
[know]  what  me  must  do — hope  Jesus  save 
me.    Suppose  He  no  save  me,  me  lost  forever." 

"  Sometimes  you  preach,  massa,  me  t'ink 
you  talk  only  to  me.  Me  say  in  heart,  *  That 
me ! '  Me  been  do  that  thing.  Sometimes 
me  t'ink  me  have  two  hearts* — one  want 
do  good,  other  always  want  do  bad.  0  Jesus, 
have  mercy  on  poor  sinner." 

*  Compare  Rom.  vii. 


110  SEFEN    YEAR.S  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

"  My  husband  lie  no  pray,  no  serve  God. 
Suppose  me  talk  to  him  about  God  palaver 
[preaching],  he  take  whip,  he  flog  me.  Me 
have  trouble  much,  but  Jesus  help  me  take 
all  the  trouble." 

Missionaries,  and  other  visitors  at  Regent's 
Town,  attending  public  services  of  worship, 
saw  the  church  filled  with  from  one  thousand 
to  twelve  hundred  black  jDeople,  their  faces 
lit  up  with  eager  desire  after  the  Word,  and 
among  the  converts  some  from  the  Ebo  nation 
and  other  tribes,  the  most  savage  and  brutal 
that  were  found  in  the  slave- vessels ;  and 
they  were  compelled  to  declare  that  noth- 
ing less  than  a  miracle  had  been  wrought  in 
the  mission.  Moreover,  these  very  converts, 
themselves  just  plucked  as  brands  from  the 
burning,  and  having  the  smell  of  fire  and  the 
smutch  of  the  burning  brand  yet  on  them, 
crowded  the  church  on  the  first  Monday  of 
the  month,  at  the  missionary  concert,  planning 
for  the  rescue  of  others  yet  in  the  fire  of  sin, 
and  bringing  forward  their  contributions,  a 
willing  offering. 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  111 

With  a  refuse  population  like  this  to  deal 
with,  it  was  like  bringing  the  order  and 
beauty  of  cosmos  out  of  chaos  to  develop 
holy  living,  and  the  pei'versity  and  depravity 
of  evil  were  repeatedly  exhibited. 

In  the  school  there  were  outbreaks  of  un- 
governable temper.  One  day  the  largest  but 
one  of  the  girls,  and  the  most  tiresomely  head- 
strong, not  only  refused  to  obey  the  head 
usher,  but  caught  hold  of  her  and  beat  her. 
The  assault  was  renewed  after  an  interval, 
and  so  Johnson  had  to  interfere.  The  case 
called  for  sharp  discipline,  and  he  took  the 
whip  and  laid  a  few  strokes  on  the  back  of 
the  rebellious  scholar.  The  lash  caught  on 
some  obstacle,  and  rebounding  struck  his  own 
left  eye,  which  was  instantly  covered  with 
blood.  The  pain  was  so  great  as  to  induce 
faintness  and  sickness,  and  for  three  days 
both  eyes  were  nearly  blind.  The  affliction 
only  served  to  bring  out  the  deep  love  of 
these  poor  negroes  for  Johnson,  whom 
they  constantly  visited  and  for  whom  they 
showed  the  solicitude  of  devotion.     Some, 


112  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

whose  piety  and  sincerity  he  had  doubted, 
thus  proved  both  the  reahty  of  their  faith  in 
Christ  and  of  their  love  toward  His  servant, 
and  so  again  all  things  worked  together  for 
good. 

Mr.  Johnson's  narrative  abounds  in  refer- 
ences to  the  surprisingly  untiring  attendance 
of  these  converts  upon  the  so-called  "  means 
of  grace."  There  were  people,  and  not  a  few, 
who  attended  every  Sunday  six  separate 
services  of  worship,  beginning  with  a  prayer- 
meeting  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  then  a 
preaching  service  at  half-past  ten,  another 
prayer-meeting  at  two  o'clock,  another 
preaching  service  at  three,  and  concluding 
the  day  with  two  more  prayer-meetings  at 
six  and  a  quarter  past  eight.  And  distance 
was  no  obstacle,  nor  was  an  inconvenient, 
uncomfortable  state  of  weather.  The  Word 
of  God  laid  hold  on  them ;  they  learned  that 
God  is  a  prayer-hearer,  and  they  came  as 
those  who  expected  to  get  blessing,  and  were 
never  disappointed.  Here  was  an  apostolic 
church  like  unto  the  primitive  assemblies, 
springing  up  on  African  soil  and  producing  all 


FIRST-FRUITS   UNTO   GOD  113 

the  early  fruits  of  faith  and  godliness.  Truly 
Grod  is  no  respecter  of  persons.  Who  shall 
ever  measure  the  possibilities  of  grace  when 
such  astonishing  results  appear  on  such  a 
field  as  first-f rmts  unto  God ! 


CHAPTER  VI 

FLOODS  UPON  THE  DEY  GEOUND 

The  history  of  missions  is  the  standing 
witness  and  irresistible  proof  of  the  fact  that 
God  is,  and  is  a  rewarder  of  those  who  dili- 
gently seek  Him.  The  story  of  these  seven 
years  in  Sierra  Leone  is  itself  another  burn- 
ing bush,  which,  although  it  grew  in  a  desert, 
exhibits  every  leaf  and  twig  aflame  with  the 
divine  presence ;  and  to  this  day  no  one  who 
looks  intently  upon  it  can  help  exclaiming, 
"  How  wonderful  is  it ! " 

Yet  in  all  this  experience  of  God's  working 
there  was  perpetual  need  of  man's  watching. 
The  missionary  found,  both  in  himself  and  in 
his  surroundings,  abundant  occasion  for  un- 
ceasing prayerfulness  and  watchfulness.  He 
himself  was  but  human,  and  full  of  tlie  follies 
and  frailties  of  a  fallen  man;  a  moment  of 

114 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY   GROUND  115 

seK-confidence  or  self-dependence  might  be- 
tray him  not  only  into  grievous  mistakes, 
but  into  serious  sins  and  departures  from  the 
living  God.  There  were  European  residents 
in  the  colony  who  vigorously  believed  noth- 
ing and  consistently  practised  what  they 
believed,  exhibiting  their  creed  in  their  con- 
duct; and  there  were  also  formalists  and 
ritualists,  who  had  neither  any  true  concep- 
tion of  spiritual  worship  nor  any  real  insight 
into  the  inner  meaning  and  purport  of  divine 
ordinances.  Nor  could  there  be  any  doubt  of 
a  personal  devil,  nor  of  his  mighty  working ; 
for  he  seemed  to  have  come  down,  having 
great  wrath,  as  though  he  knew  that  his  time 
was  short,  and  was  determined  to  work  all  the 
havoc  and  ruin  possible  in  this  rapidly  trans- 
forming community. 

It  was  the  habit  of  Johnson  not  to  spare 
himself.  Perhaps  he  often  went  to  an  ex- 
treme in  his  exertions  and  was  unduly  care- 
less of  health.  Those  who,  like  him,  find 
themselves  confronting  a  whole  multitude  of 
most  debased  and  depraved  humanity,  in 
perishing  need  of  help  for  both  body  and 


116  SEl^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

soul,  and  yet  compelled  to  minister  to  such 
complex  misery  and  poverty  single-handed, 
have  often  sacrificed  themselves  in  the  vain 
attempt  to  overtake  the  destitution  and 
degradation  about  them.  Ordinary  prudence 
is  forgotten  in  passion  for  souls ;  the  barriers 
of  conscious  self-preservation  are  often  swept 
away  by  the  resistless  impulse  of  love  for 
dying  men.  The  maxims  of  health,  the  im- 
perative laws  of  rest  and  recreation,  the 
demand  for  pure  air,  good  food,  abundant 
sleep,  are  not  so  much  forgotten  as  disre- 
garded in  the  multipljdng  activities  of  a  man 
who  sees  no  way  of  escape  from  crowded 
meetings,  ceaseless  labors,  unwholesome  diet, 
and  broken  rest,  except  in  the  utter  aban- 
donment of  his  work. 

This  may  be  indefensible  and  even  suicidal, 
but  it  is  an  experience  which  is  so  common 
with  the  most  devoted  servants  of  God  that 
it  cannot  easily  be  remedied.  Our  blessed 
Lord  Himself  found  no  leisure  so  much  as  to 
eat,  and  had  to  take  the  night  and  the  lonely 
mountain-top  to  find  a  time  and  place  for 
prayerful  communion  with  God.     The  ques- 


FLOODS  UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  117 

tion  asked  Him  by  controversial  Jews, "  Thou 
art  not  yet  fifty  years  old,  and  hast  Thou  seen 
Abraham?"  hints  that  the  young  man  of 
thirty  may  have  presented  the  appearance  of 
premature  age,  as  though  twenty  years  older, 
because  of  the  too  rapid  expenditure  of  vi- 
tality in  the  unavoidable  pressure  of  His 
ministry  to  souls  and  bodies. 

Whatever  be  the  ethics  of  Mr.  Johnson's 
case,  the  fact  is  that  more  than  once  he  rose 
from  a  sick-bed,  weak  and  exhausted,  to  go 
to  his  pulpit  or  prayer-meeting,  lest  his 
hungry  flock  should  go  untended  or  unfed. 
Sometimes,  like  Lyman  Beecher,  he  found  a 
good  "  pulpit  sweat "  acting  as  a  tonic  and 
stimulant,  but  there  were  too  many  cases  in 
which  such  exertions  were  far  from  remedial. 

From  these  aspects  of  his  work,  and  ex- 
perience of  weakness  and  conflict,  we  turn, 
however,  to  the  singular  and  almost  unprece- 
dented success  which  so  abundantly  repaid 
all  expenditure  of  time  and  strength  that  all 
self -loss  was  more  than  forgotten  in  the  vast 
gains  of  others.  If  he  had  ever  for  a  mo- 
ment doubted  the  divine  vitality  of  which 


118  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

the  gospel  was  the  hiding,  he  could  not  ques- 
tion that  in  this  seed  of  the  Word  there  lay 
the  secret  of  all  wisdom  and  power.  He  saw 
that  seed,  sown  by  himself  in  a  soil  as  hope- 
less as  any  in  the  wide  world  field,  actually 
taking  root,  and  not  only  taking  root,  but 
bearing  fruit — the  same  fruit  as  elsewhere 
and  in  the  most  promising  soil.  Plants  of 
godhness,  trees  of  righteousness,  were  grow- 
ing rapidly  and  already  stood  there  in  Re- 
gent's Town,  proving  God's  own  husbandry, 
and  men  were  constrained  to  call  them  the 
planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He  might  be 
glorified.* 

Every  day  was  fraught  with  events  that  go 
to  make  history.  For  example,  on  Novem- 
ber 27,  1817,  he  visited  King  George  of  Yon- 
gi'oo,  in  the  Bullom  settlement,  and  as  he 
observed  the  devils'  houses  and  the  influence 
of  the  gree-grees,  he  could  only  thank  God  for 
the  contrast  to  all  this  presented  at  Hogbrook. 
On  his  return  he  was  welcomed  with  such 
enthusiasm  that  he  could  get  no  farther 
than  his  door,  both  house  and  piazza  being 

*  Isaiah  Ixi.  3. 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  119 

thronged,  and  from  that  point  he  addressed 
the  crowd.  At  an  evening  meeting  he  read 
an  anecdote  of  a  poor  woman  who  had,  at 
cost  of  much  sacrifice,  contributed  to  mis- 
sions ;  and  when  he  had  done  speaking  four 
communicants  spoke  in  behalf  of  the  cause 
of  missions,  and  asked  to  form  a  missionary- 
society,  and  urged  that  one  evening  each  week 
might  be  set  apart  for  its  meetings.  Decem- 
ber 3d  being  designated,  at  seven  o'clock  the 
church  building  was  full.  A  service  of  prayer 
had  preceded,  as  nothing  was  done  without 
first  counseling  with  Grod;  and  a  brief  talk 
followed,  in  which  Mr.  Johnson,  referring  to 
their  former  state  without  Christ,  depicted  the 
misery  of  the  heathen,  and  urged  them  both  to 
send  out  and  support  their  own  missionary, 
and  encouraged  them  to  bring  their  own  little 
gifts,  by  commenting  on  Mark  xii.  42-44,  the 
story  of  the  widow  and  her  two  mites.  No  less 
than  seventeen  converts  followed  him,  speak- 
ing much  to  the  purpose,  although  in  broken 
English,  and  their  pastor  wished  in  his  heart 
that  friends  in  England  might  have  heard  those 
simple  exhortations.  William  Tamba  prayed 


120  SEFEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

God  to  send  out  more  laborers  to  the  regions 
beyond,  and  emphasized  both  his  prayer  and 
his  speech  by  giving  a  half-crown.  Thinking 
that  he  might  not  understand  that  a  monthly 
offering  was  contemplated,  it  was  so  explained 
to  him ;  but  his  answer  was,  "  I  know,  and  I 
will  give  a  similar  sum  each  month."  Several 
others  followed  his  example.  It  was  then 
decided  that  those  who  became  members 
should  undertake  to  give  not  less  than  two- 
pence a  month,  and  one  hundred  and  seven 
at  once  became  subscribers,  after  which 
several  of  the  school-boys  and  -girls  gave 
their  pence  and  halfpence.  One  boy,  being 
asked  where  he  had  got  his  money,  answered, 
"  Me  have  three  coppers  [i.e.,  halfpence]  long 
time ;  me  beg  massa  take  two,  me  keep  one." 
Mr.  Johnson  advised  him  to  keep  them  all, 
but  he  insisted  that  at  least  two  should  be 
put  in  the  mission  fund,  which  deeply  stirred 
the  heart  of  his  pastor. 

The  next  day  after  the  formation  of  this 
missionary  society  it  was  announced  that  a 
visit  was  to  be  made  to  Leicester  Mountain 
in  the  evening,  where  all  the  missionaries  were 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY   GROUND  121 

to  meet  to  pray  for  the  spread  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  that  any  who  wished  to  accompany 
Mr.  Johnson  must  be  ready  at  four  o'clock, 
dressed  and  clean.  Three  hundred  and 
twenty-one  went  with  him.  It  seemed  in- 
credible, even  to  the  missionary  himself,  that 
all  these  his  companions  had  so  short  a  time 
before  seemed  almost  beyond  the  reach  of 
grace. 

The  large  place  of  meeting  was  filled,  and 
some  were  standing  in  the  yard.  It  was  an 
occasion  never  to  be  forgotten,  and  as  they 
marched  back  they  sang  with  joy  such  hymns 
as: 

''How  beauteous  are  their  feet, 
Wlio  stand  on  Zion's  hill ; 
Who  bring  salvation  on  their  tongues, 
And  words  of  peace  reveal ! " 

The  following  Lord's  day  afternoon  the 
sacramental  Supper  was  administered  to  some 
eighty  persons,  Mr.  Gates  making  the  address ; 
but  when  about  half  through  his  remarks  he 
was  suddenly  overtaken  by  fever,  and  had  to 
leave  Mr.  Johnson  to  complete  the  discoui-se ; 
who  also,  though  he  had  finished  the  sermon, 


122  SEl^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

was  prostrated  by  fever,  so  that  the  people  had 
to  take  charge  of  the  evening  service  them- 
selves   The  next  day  Mr.  Johnson's  symptoms 
were  alarmingly  violent,  for  he  became  de- 
lirious; bnt  a  messenger,  hastily  despatched 
to  the  governor,  returned  with  a  physician 
mounted  on  horseback,  and  his  recovery  was 
rapid.     One  such  glimpse  at  both  the  work 
and  its  hindrances  may  sufBce,  for  it  is  a  fan- 
example  of   experiences   extended   through 

seven  years. 

Physical  transformations  were  also  wi-ouglit 
by  the  gospel.     In  place  of  desolation  and 
devastation,  Johnson,  in  1818,  surveying  Re- 
gent's Town  from  a  high  rock,  could  see  the 
prophecy  in  Isaiah  xxxv.  1,  2  literally  fal- 
filled.   What  in  1816  was  a  desert  overgrown 
with  bush,  and  the  dwelhng-place  of  wild  men 
and  wild  beasts,  was  two  years  later  a  fruitful 
field,  garden  spots,  fields  covered  with  rice, 
cocoa,  cassavas,  yams,  plantains,  and   ba- 
nanas.   With  a  joy  that  to  be  known  must 
be  felt,  he  saw  the  vilest  vices  and  most  ab- 
horrent practices  give  place  to  habits  of  indus- 
try and  virtue,  and  practical  morality  and 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  123 

piety  manifested  in  the  daily  life  of  hundreds 
of  people.    Promiscuous  concubinage  would 
be  too  refined  a  phrase  for  the  nameless  enor- 
mities which  had  prevailed  and  which  were 
now  supplanted  and  displaced  by  honorable 
marriage  and  domestic  purity.     When,  on 
July  5, 1818,  he  united  in  holy  wedlock  James 
Bell,  a  stone-mason,  and  Hannah  Cammel, 
an  usher  in  the  girls'  school,  both  of  them 
commimicants  in  his  church   and   weanng 
European  dress,  he  regarded  it  as  markmg 
a  new  epoch  in  the  mission.    This  was  the 
finest  black  couple  he  had  ever  united  m 
matrimony;  they  represented  the  fruits  of 
such  civilization  as  the  gospel  produces,  and 
he  felt  a  holy  pride  in  contemplating  such  a 
basis  for  a  Christian  home  and  household 
amid  the  pagan  darkness  of  Africa. 

Family  life  is  another  sphere  which  severely 
tests  the  genuineness  and  depth  of  the  work 
of  grace,  and  here  again  gospel  triumphs  were 
made  conspicuous.  Under  sin's  reign  we 
sometimes  see  a  whole  people  perishing  by 
excess  of  deaths  over  births,  while  even  the 
births  themselvesare  largely  the  fruit  of  crime. 


124  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

At  Sierra  Leone  in  one  day  in  1816  more 
persons  died  than  were  born  during  a  whole 
year,  for  there  were  seven  deaths  daily  and 
but  six  births  in  the  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five.  Two  years  later  it  was  recorded  that 
within  six  months  only  seven  deaths  had 
occurred,  while  forty-two  were  born,  and  the 
excess  was  therefore  already  fivefold. 

In  1817  a  mutual  Benefit  Society  was  organ- 
ized, consisting  of  communicants  only,  each 
member  paying  a  halfpenny  per  week,  thus 
forming  a  fund  from  which  to  supply  help  in 
sickness  or  other  times  of  need.  This  proved 
a  conspicuous  means  of  promoting  and  foster- 
ing unselfish  love  and  mutual  harmony.  It 
was  another  of  the  fruits  of  godliness,  for 
every  one  learned  to  look,  not  on  his  own 
things  solely,  but  on  the  things  of  others. 
These  new  converts  thus  early  thought  of 
and  cared  for  one  another.  And  though  they 
were  so  poor,  the  half-yearly  contributions 
from  January  to  June,  1818,  reached  in  half- 
pence nearly  seven  pounds  sterling. 

These  converted  blacks  were  faithful 
church-goers,  not  easily  kept  away  by  the 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY   GROUND  125 

weather.  Through  torrents  of  rain  they 
trudged  over  roads  ankle-deep  in  mud,  and 
forded  streams  sometimes  up  to  the  waist, 
and  even  to  the  neck,  that  they  might  worship 
God.  Nearly  two  years  after  Johnson  began 
labors  among  them  he  put  on  record  in  his 
journal  that  "  not  one  service  had  been  neg- 
lected" since  he  came  there.  During  the 
rainy  season,  when  the  overflow  of  the  streams 
submerged  even  the  bridges,  the  people  waded 
through  the  water  up  to  the  armpits  rather 
than  be  deprived  of  such  privileges,  and  thus, 
whether  rainy  or  fair,  the  house  of  prayer 
was  always  full. 

"When,  for  any  cause,  these  simple-minded 
converts  were  keptfrom  the  missionary  prayer 
service,  they  came  afterward  to  bring  their 
small  offerings,  thus  showing  more  self-sacri- 
fice and  zeal  than  many  a  more  enlightened 
disciple,  who  acts  as  though  to  escape  a 
"  collection  "  were  simply  so  much  saved ! 

The  fruits  of  faith  are  not  easily  counter- 
feited even  by  that  master  of  frauds,  the 
devil.  Systematic  and  cheerful  giving  may 
be  counted  among  the  remarkable  signs  of 


126  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

grace.  Paul,  in  that  great  essay  on  Christian 
giving  which  occupies  the  eighth  and  ninth 
chapters  of  Second  Corinthians,  presents  an 
example  so  rare  that  even  yet  it  has  few  par- 
allels. Those  Macedonian  disciples  were  so 
glad  to  give  that,  when  their  deep  poverty 
made  him  feel  reluctant  to  accept  their  offer- 
ings, they,  with  much  entreaty,  begged  him  to 
receive  their  gift  and  admit  them  to  the  sacred 
privilege  and  fellowship  of  this  ministry  to 
poor  saints  of  the  Lord. 

It  was  given  to  these  Eegent's  Town  con- 
verts to  imitate  these  Macedonians  in  their 
eagerness  to  give.  One  morning  some  brought 
money  due  for  the  following  montli's  contri- 
bution to  missions,  and  when  the  inquiry  was 
naturally  made  as  to  the  reason  for  this  ad- 
vance payment,  the  explanation  of  one  was : 
"  I  may  be  sick  next  month  and  unable  to 
pay,  so  I  pay  now  to  make  sure !  " 

We  now  come  to  a  time  in  the  history  of 
this  work  when  the  floods  of  water  were 
poured  upon  the  dry  ground,  and  the  blessing 
was  so  abundant  and  enriching  that  even  the 
minute  features  of  the  narrative  acquire  fas- 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  127 

cinatiug  interest.  Nothing  seems  insignifi- 
cant when  God  mightily  moves  among  men. 
We  may  well  give  close  attention  to  details, 
lest  we  lose  some  part  of  the  significance  of 
this  Pentecostal  outpouring. 

On  September  6,  1818,  the  church  was  so 
densely  thronged  that  even  the  vestry,  gal- 
lery stairs,  tower,  and  windows  were  full,  and 
some  of  the  extra  seats  broke  down  with 
their  burden.  When  pastor  Johnson  came  in 
and  looked  on  the  eager  throng,  his  heart 
was  so  full  both  of  joy  and  of  awe  that  he 
could  scarcely  restrain  his  emotion  or  open  his 
mouth  in  controlled  speech.  The  groanings 
and  loud  cries  were  more  rare,  but  in  their 
place  there  was  a  holy  silence  as  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God. 

After  the  service  he  observed  boys  and 
girls  going  into  a  field,  and  he  went  up  to 
the  housetop  to  watch  them.  Shortly  they 
parted,  the  boys  going  one  way  and  the  girls 
another,  and  at  length  he  could  see  them  all 
kneehng  behind  different  clumps  of  bushes 
for  prayer.  When  the  evening  service  was 
over,  the  boys  sought  him  and  told  him  how 


128  SEyEN  YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

they  had  been  out  in  the  field  to  pray,  but 
found  that  they  did  not  know  how.  They 
said  they  had  heard  that  Jesus  prayed  for 
them,  and  would  like  to  know  if  that  were 
really  true.  He  then  in  simple  words  ex- 
plained to  them  the  office  of  the  great  High 
Priest  and  Intercessor  at  God's  right  hand, 
and  they  went  again  to  the  field,  joyfully  to 
resume  praying.  It  was  a  bright,  still,  moon- 
light night,  and  the  scene  was  awfully  im- 
pressive. Groups  of  girls  could  be  seen  here 
in  one  part  of  the  field,  and  there,  at  some 
little  distance  off  upon  a  high  rock,  the  boys 
were  gathered.  Through  the  quiet  night  air 
their  voices  were  clearly  heard  repeating  and 
then  singing  hymns,  and  engaging  in  prayer, 
and  their  words  could  almost  be  distin- 
guished. Many  of  the  older  people,  hearing, 
arose  and  went  to  join  these  "  infant  congre- 
gations," where,  as  out  of  the  mouth  of  babes 
and  sucklings,  God  was  once  more  perfecting 
His  praise. 

Next  morning  Johnson  awoke  early,  hear- 
ing the  girls  behind  the  school-house  sing- 
ing and  praying ;  and  his  wife  advised  their 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  129 

going  back  to  bed,  lest  others  should  be  dis- 
turbed. Shortly  after,  about  four  o'clock, 
the  boys  were  heard  singing  in  their  houses, 
and  word  was  sent  to  them  likewise  to  keep 
silence  and  not  to  wake  those  who  needed 
sleep.  But  who  could  doubt  that  a  power 
from  above  was  at  work  among  the  school- 
children of  Eegent's  Town  ? 

The  morning  signal  rang  for  family  wor- 
ship, but  it  was  raining  so  hard,  and  the  wind 
blowing  so  like  a  tornado,  that  few  were  ex- 
pected to  morning  prayers.  Imagine  the  sur- 
prise when,  looking  from  his  window,  the 
missionary  saw  the  streets  thronged,  and  go- 
ing into  the  large  church  found  it  as  full  as 
on  Sunday !  Mr.  Davis  and  Tamba  had  been 
with  the  boys  until  two  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  testified  that  they  could  not  have 
believed  mere  lads  capable  of  such  gifts  in 
prayer.  All  the  people  seemed  to  be  breathing 
a  heavenly  air  and  bathed  in  the  light  of  God. 
Their  whole  conversation  was  in  heaven,  and 
seemed  an  illustration  of  what  is  recorded  of 
Elijah,  that  he  stood  in  the  presence  of  Je- 
hovah, 


130  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Outsiders  who  ventured  within  could  not 
fail  to  recognize  an  unusual  but  indefinable 
solemnity  that  pervaded  these  assemblies. 
A  carpenter  from  Leopold's  To^vn  begged 
that  permission  might  be  obtained  from  the 
governor  for  him  to  stay  at  Regent's  Town, 
so  reluctant  was  he  to  get  out  of  the  circle 
where  such  blessing  abode. 

Just  before  Mr.  Johnson  retired  for  rest 
September  7,  1818,  the  girls  asked  if  they 
might  not  go  into  the  church  to  sing  and 
pray.  Permission  was  given,  with  the  con- 
dition that  but  two  hjTnns  should  be  sung, 
in  order  to  allow  others  to  sleep.  But  the 
singing  had  only  begun  when  all  the  people 
wJio  heard  it  got  up  and  joined  them.  John- 
son's own  servant,  Mary  Wynah,  was  the 
first  to  pray,  and  not  a  man  or  boy  was  then 
present,  but  when  her  prayer  was  concluded 
the  boys,  who  had  come  in,  took  up  the  sup- 
plication, and  the  prayers  continued  until  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  throng  re- 
luctantly dispersed  and  went  quietly  to  bed. 

The  next  day,  after  school,  boys  and  girls 
together  again  resorted  to  the  church  for 


FLOODS   UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  131 

prayer,  while  the  missionary  and  his  wife, 
standing  behind  the  window  or  sitting  under 
the  staircase,  drank  in  delight  as  they  heard 
these  little  ones  pour  out  their  hearts  to  God. 
At  last  the  prayer  of  a  boy  but  ten  years  old 
was  so  niarvelously  rich  in  spiritual  experi- 
ence that  the  heart  of  the  missionary  burst 
with  emotion.  He  could  stay  no  longer  with- 
out crying  aloud,  and,  with  full  soul  and 
streaming  eyes,  he  sought  some  place  where 
he  could  give  free. vent  to  his  pent-up  feel- 
ings. Even  then  he  could  scarcely  pray  in 
words,  for  tears  choked  his  utterance,  and  he 
could  only  cry,  amid  sobs  of  joy,  "  0  my  God 
and  Saviour,  what  hast  Thou  done !  What 
shall  I  render  to  Thee?" 

Such  rejoicing  was  not,  however,  un- 
mingled  with  trembling.  He  was  overawed 
at  such  clear  signs  of  the  divine  presence, 
but  he  had  observed  that  whenever  the  Spirit 
of  holiness  was  peculiarly  active  the  spirits 
of  evil  redoubled  their  activity  also,  and  such 
continued  to  be  his  experience  to  the  very 
end  of  his  life.  Johnson  remarked,  "I  am 
afraid  the  devil  will  roar  very  loud  hereafter," 


132  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA^ LEONE 

reminding  one  of  the  Cornish  miner  and 
evangelist,  Billy  Bray,  who  always  counted 
on  Satan's  making  a  special  row  whenever 
the  spirit  of  revival  broke  out  among  the  peo- 
ple, and  braced  himself  for  the  encounter. 

The  attachment  of  these  young  converts  to 
their  missionary  pastor  was  wonderful  in  both 
strength  and  tenderness.  For  instance,  when 
Mr.  Grarnon  died,  the  governor  wished  Mr. 
Johnson  to  hold  service  at  Freetown,  August 
2,  1818.  When  it  was  known  that  he  was 
going  to  comply,  his  whole  parish  was  in  an 
uproar  of  excitement  lest  he  should  stay  at 
Freetown  to  take  Mr.  Garnon's  place,  and  he 
could  with  difficulty  pacify  his  people  even 
by  the  most  emphatic  assurances  of  his  return. 
They  declared  that  if  he  changed  his  field  of 
residence  and  labor  they  all  would  follow  in 
a  body;  and  when  at  last  he  prevailed  on 
them  to  consent  to  his  going  for  the  Sunday, 
they  declared  that  if  he  did  not  come  back 
promptly  on  Monday  they  would  go  and  fetch 
him! 

His  experience  at  Freetown  was  not  such 
as  would  be  likely  to  wean  him  from  his  de- 


FLOODS  UPON  THE  DRY  GROUND         133 

voted  flock.  He  found  a  motley  congrega- 
tion, in  which  were  the  governor  and  some 
officers,  together  with  soldiers  and  the  in- 
habitants of  the  town.  He  spoke  from  Acts 
xix.  2,  but  the  Word  fell  on  very  unfruitful 
soil.  Indeed,  a  spirit  not  only  of  lethargy, 
but  of  levity,  pervaded  the  assembly.  He 
was  annoyed  by  the  laughter  of  the  officers, 
who  seemed  on  the  point  of  leaving  in  the 
midst  of  the  meeting,  and  one  did  go  out. 
The  audience  generally  were  as  uninterested 
and  inattentive  as  though  blind  and  deaf,  and 
the  black  soldiers  were  apparently  the  only 
ones  who  inclined  to  give  the  preacher  a 
decent  hearing.  When  at  noon  he  reached 
home,  he  felt  himself  not  only  in  another 
atmosphere,  but  in  a  new  world.  Some  of  the 
people,  in  their  impatience  for  his  return,  met 
him  on  the  hill  as  he  approached,  and  he 
found  Dr.  Macaulay  Wilson's  house  crowded, 
with  preparations  for  keeping  the  Lord's 
Supper.  In  the  evening  he  addressed  a  throng 
that  seemed  to  drink  in  every  word  he  spoke, 
and  again  he  thanked  Grod  for  such  proofs  of 
His  presence,  and  for  a  people  whose  hearts 


134  SEyEhl    YE/IRS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

were  not  closed  and  hardened  against  the 
truth. 

Not  only  were  they  good  hearers  and  not 
forgetful,  but  they  were  doers  of  the  work. 
They  heard  for  a  practical  purpose.  For  in- 
stance, finding  a  dispute  existing  among  his 
church-members,  he  at  once  preached  from 
Luke  vi.  37 :  "  Forgive,  and  ye  shall  be  for- 
given." The  Word  had  immediate  effect. 
Before  they  left  the  house  all  the  disputants 
had  confessed  to  one  another  with  sorrow 
their  misdoings  and  their  desire  for  peace. 
Harmony  was  at  once  restored.  The  house 
of  God  became  the  gate  of  heaven  once  more, 
opening  into  love's  fragrant  gardens. 

In  August,  1818,  nine  of  the  sixteen  appli- 
cants for  baptism  were  school-girls,  and  in 
the  cases  of  some  of  them  their  youth  was  a 
ground  of  hesitancy.  But  they  gave  proofs 
so  simple,  yet  so  ample  and  striking,  of  the 
working  of  God's  grace  in  their  minds  and 
hearts,  that  their  pastor  dared  not  refuse 
them.  Among  them  was  one,  a  girl  of  eleven, 
whom  his  wife  two  years  before  had  taken 


FLOODS  UPON   THE  DRY  GROUND  135 

into  their  home  and  named  Hagar  Johnson. 
He  was  strongly  opposed  to  her  joining  the 
chnrch,  yet  he  conld  find  nothing  to  blame 
in  her  conduct,  and  at  her  examination  as 
to  the  evidence  of  her  regenerate  state  this 
mere  child  of  eleven  years  gave  an  account 
of  her  experience  of  grace  so  satisfactory  that 
it  is  not  irreverent  to  apply  to  her  such  words 
as  were  written  of  her  Master  when  he  was 
twelve  years  of  age :  all  that  heard  her  were 
astonished  at  her  understanding  and  answers. 
Mr.  Johnson's  objections  were  swept  away, 
and  she  was  received.  Nor  had  he  any  occa- 
sion to  regret  it,  for  he  often  found  this  young 
disciple  on  her  knees,  praying  and  weeping 
as  she  yearned  after  God,  or,  like  some  ma- 
ture saint,  visiting  the  fatherless  and  widows 
in  their  affliction,  ministering  to  the  sick  and 
the  needy,  while  she  never  failed  to  show 
piety  at  home. 

The  Spirit  used  the  Word  as  the  sword,  the 
hammer,  and  the  fire,  all  at  once.  The  most 
hardened  and  hostile  were  pricked  in  their 
hearts,  broken  into  contrition,  melted  into 


13G  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

obedience.  Those  who  had  been  most  hope- 
lessly bound  by  habits  of  sin  found  their 
fetters  broken,  their  prison  doors  opened,  and 
themselves  free.  It  was  the  acceptable  year 
of  the  Lord.  On  one  occasion,  the  gi'eatest 
enemy  of  the  missionary  and  his  message, 
who  had  in  every  way  fought  against  the 
truth,  working  all  uncleanness  with  greedi- 
ness, came  to  Mr.  Johnson  in  the  greatest 
distress  of  mind  for  guidance. 

The  numbers  of  those  who  manifested  de- 
sire after  godliness  were  at  times  so  great 
that  the  testimony  of  his  own  eyes  could 
scarcely  be  believed.  It  was  more  like  an 
iUusive  dream  than  a  sober  reality.  Yet  it 
could  be  no  dream,  for  as  he  closely  observed 
he  saw  how  the  whole  conduct  and  charac- 
ter, thought  and  utterance,  had  undergone  a 
transformation. 

How  gi'eat  was  the  joy  of  these  Sierra 
Leone  converts  in  their  newly  found  Saviour 
may  be  seen  by  the  praise  they  publicly  gave 
to  God  that  they  had  ever  leen  sold  into 
slavery^  since  their  bondage  to  man  had  been 
the  means  used  in  His  providence  for  intro- 


FLOODS   UPON    THE  DRY   GROUND  137 

ducing  them  into  the  liberty  of  the  Lord's 
freemen. 

Early  in  his  experiences  at  Hogbrook,  Mr. 
Johnson  records  his  manner  of  studying  God's 
Word,  which  should  be  embodied  in  this  nar- 
rative as  both  important  and  instructive,  and 
of  permanent  value  as  revealing  secrets  of 
his  success.  His  humility  and  self-distrust 
drove  him  to  find  all  sufficiency  in  God,  and 
his  testimony  is  unequivocal : 

"  I  have  learned  by  experience  that  when  I 
have  studied  a  passage,  divided  and  subdi- 
vided it,  and  am  thus  well  prepared  by  my 
own  imaginations,  I  feel  no  power  to  explain 
it ;  but  that  when  I  entirely  lean  upon  God 
the  Holy  Spirit's  influence,  and  thus  begin, 
divisions  and  subdivisions  come  flowing 
apace." 

His  constant  prayer  was  that  whenever,  in 
the  name  of  Jesus,  he  stood  up,  he  might  en- 
tirely depend  on  the  wisdom  that  comes  from 
above.  And  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
simple  sermons  which  he  preached  evinced 
much  of  the  Spirit's  teaching,  even  if  they 
were  not  framed  on  the  best  homiletic  models. 


138  SEVEN    YE/IRS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

For  example,  let  us  take,  almost  at  ran- 
dom, an  outline  on  Isaiah  Ixii.  12 :  "  1.  The 
election:  God's  people  a  'holy  people.'  2. 
Their  redemption:  'Redeemed  of  the  Lord.' 
3.  Their  calling :  '  Sought  out.'  4.  Their  final 
perseverance :  *  A  city  not  forsaken.' " 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  REGIONS   BEYOND 

Theee  are  two  passions  that  rank  highest 
among  all  those  impulsive,  propulsive  forces 
which  can  control  a  human  soul.  One  is  the 
passion  for  God,  and  the  other  is  the  passion 
for  men.  These  are  companion  gifts  and 
graces,  representing  the  noblest,  divinest 
affections  of  which  in  our  best  estate  we  are 
capable,  and  are  correspondingly  difficult  for 
even  Satan,  the  master  counterfeiter,  to  imi- 
tate. 

By  passion  for  God  is  meant  that  unutter- 
able yearning  after  the  divine  nature  and 
holiness  which  our  Lord  expresses  by  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness,  and  which  led 
to  Tholuck's  famous  declaration:  "I  have 
but  one  passion,  and  it  is  He,  it  is  He ! "  By 
passion  for  men  is  meant  that  kindred  love 

139 


140  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

for  souls  which  leads  to  earnest,  self-denying 
labors  for  the  salvation  of  men  as  such,  irre- 
spective of  rank,  place,  caste,  class,  color,  or 
condition. 

Samuel  J.  Mills  so  yearned  over  earth's 
perishing  multitudes  that  even  the  vast  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  was  to  him  "  like  a  pinhole," 
and  he  felt  a  sense  of  restraint  and  limitation 
even  within  the  entire  territory  of  the  United 
States,  vast  as  it  was.  And  so  Johnson  felt 
"like  a  bird  in  a  cage"  in  Sierra  Leone, 
beating  the  wings  of  his  holy  aspiration 
against  the  bars  that  kept  him  from  a  larger 
flight.  He  would  gladly  have  been  as  free  as 
the  apocalj^tic  angel  flying  through  the  midst 
of  heaven  with  the  everlasting  gospel.  His 
mind  was  constantly  wandering  into  the  re- 
gions beyond,  and  many  a  night  was  spent 
in  sleepless,  restless  yearnings  and  praying 
for  the  Dark  Continent  as  a  whole.  He,  like 
Coleridge,  saw  life  in  two  aspects : 

"  The  petty  done, 
The  undone  vast." 

His  passion  for  souls  only  revealed  to 
him  his  comparative  apathy  and  lethargy — a 


THE  REGIONS   BEYOND  141 

common  phenomenon  that  still  perplexes  and 
torments  many  of  the  best  of  God's  saints. 
Grrowth  in  the  likeness  of  Christ  serves  only 
to  make  us  seem  to  ourselves  further  from 
the  complete  image  of  His  perfection.  One 
very  marked  peculiarity  of  Johnson  was 
his  mercurial  temperament,  and  this  must 
always  be  borne  in  mind  in  following  the 
course  of  his  life-story.  The  territory  through 
which  a  stream  runs  determines  the  residuum 
which  it  leaves  on  its  bed,  whether  it  be  gold 
or  red  oxide  of  iron  and  green  sulphur.  It  is 
an  encouragement  to  others  who  find  them- 
selves weak  according  to  the  flesh  to  see  how 
a  man  subject  to  like  passions  as  themselves 
was  so  strengthened  and  used  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Grod  chooses  weak,  frail,  and  earthen 
vessels,  yea,  broken  pitchers,  to  convey  His 
grace.  There  were  times  when  for  a  whole 
week  this  man  was  in  a  very  low  state,  saw 
only  his  own  backwardness  in  God's  service, 
and  felt  only  his  own  indifference  to  the  souls 
over  whom  he  was  set  as  a  watchman.  He 
reproached  himself  that  his  thoughts  were 
unduly  absorbed  with  the  work  in  the  colony, 


142  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

while  all  Africa,  with  its  countless  millions 
of  pagans,  lay  untrodden  before  him,  inviting 
labor.  Yet  who  cannot  see  that  all  this  dark 
cloud  of  self -accusation  and  reproach  was  but 
the  smoke  beneath  which  burned  the  Spirit's 
divine  fires?  No  one  can  study  the  brief 
record  of  this  seven  years'  ministry  without 
seeing  in  this  unlettered  man  one  who  had  in 
the  school  of  Christ  learned  the  lesson  of  self- 
loss  for  others'  gain.  He  counted  himself 
but  a  seed  of  the  kingdom,  whose  destiny  it 
was  to  die,  and  dying  bring  forth  much  fruit, 
and  that  fruit  was  all  the  recompense  or  re- 
ward he  desired. 

What  a  sign  and  fruit  of  God's  husbandry 
was  it  that  in  the  unpromising  soil  of  Sierra 
Leone  passion  for  souls  was  found  growing 
even  in  new  converts !  It  was  common  for 
those  who  had  recently  found  Christ  to  be 
moved  by  irrepressible  desires  to  win  others 
to  Him.  For  instance,  a  woman  comes,  desir- 
ing to  speak  with  Mr.  Johnson.  As  Mondays 
were  set  apart  for  spiritual  conference  and 
counsel,  he  bids  her  come  then.  But  it  is 
midweek,  and  she  cannot  wait ;  her  anxieties 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  143 

for  others  are  too  intense  to  brook  delay. 
Yet  she  herself  had  been  baptized  only  eight 
months  before,  and  amid  constant  persecu- 
tion from  her  country-people  had  persevered 
both  in  her  piety  of  conduct  and  her  boldness 
of  testimony.  Even  her  own  husband  beat  her 
when  she  talked  of  Jesus,  but  she  calmly  de- 
fied his  club  until  his  hard  heart  yielded 
before  her  gentle  patience,  and  he  began  to 
attend  church  and  sought  a  habitation  nearer 
by,  that  he  might  oftener  hear  the  Word. 
And  now  she  has  brought  four  of  her  coun- 
trywomen, and  they  are  waiting  for  the  mis- 
sionary's teaching.  Through  this  humble 
woman's  witness  the  grace  of  God  has  begun 
in  them  also  its  mighty  work.  Think  of  a 
degraded  African  woman,  who  eight  months 
before  was  a  fetish-worshiper  too  low  ap- 
parently to  be  reached  even  by  the  gospel,  and 
yet  whose  mighty  passion  for  souls  cannot  be 
put  off  five  days  for  an  interview!  Where 
did  these  debased  people  get  such  advanced 
ideas  of  divine  things,  as  when  another 
woman  of  the  Ebo  tribe  came  asking  for  bap- 
tism, and  said,  "Me  pray  to  God  the  Holy 


144  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Ghost  to  take  me  to  Jesus,  Him  to  take  me 
to  the  Father  "  I  The  pastor  could  only  mar- 
vel how  to  so  simple  a  mind  had  been  re- 
vealed the  ministry  of  the  Spirit  in  leading 
to  Jesus  as  Saviour,  and  the  mediatorial  work 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  reconciling  and  leading 
the  sinner  to  Grod.  But  the  same  Spirit  who 
could  thus  make  truth  plain  to  the  benighted 
heart  could  inspire  in  that  heart  a  holy  zeal 
for  God. 

If  "the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God,"  they  do  not  always  honor  their  divine 
ordination.  In  1818  the  governor,  visiting 
Regent's  Town,  expressed  the  wish  that  Mr. 
Johnson  would  baptize  more  of  the  people, 
and,  in  fact,  all  of  them  that  would  submit. 
Looking  on  baptism  as  he  did,  as  an  act  of 
civilization,  he  thought  it  the  duty  of  the 
missionary  to  apply  it  to  all  and  so  help  to 
make  them  all  Christians.  He  urged  that  the 
reason  why  so  many  were  baptized  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost  was  that  the  apostles  de- 
spised and  refused  none;  and  the  warmth 
and  positiveness  with  which  he  advocated 
such  promiscuous  use  of  the  ordinance  were 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  145 

well  calculated  to  abash  and  embarrass  his 
humble  subordinate. 

Like  too  many  others,  the  chief  magistrate 
mistook  a  sign  and  seal  of  grace  received 
for  a  means  or  method  of  receiving  or  con- 
veying grace.  Few  evils  have  ever  crept 
into  the  church  of  God  more  alarming  and 
subtle  than  notions  of  sacramental  efficacy. 
Worship  expresses  itself  in  forms,  but  forms 
can  never  inspire  worship.  Love  and  loyalty 
to  God  find  their  natural  channel  in  holy 
obedience,  but  in  vain  do  you  scoop  out 
a  channel  where  there  is  no  stream.  It  is 
both  an  inversion  and  a  perversion  when  a 
sacrament  or  ordinance  is  elevated  to  such 
prominence  as  that  it  is  made  pi'actically  to 
take  the  position  of  a  cause  where  it  should 
be  an  effect,  or  to  precede  where  it  should 
succeed. 

Johnson  was  not  a  man  to  be  thus  silenced. 
He  could  withstand  governors  and  kings  if 
loyalty  to  Christ  and  His  truth  demanded,  as 
John  the  Baptist  rebuked  Herod,  as  Elijah 
confronted  Ahab,  or  as  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
joined  issue  with  the  Protector.     He  quietly 


146  SEl^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

replied  that  ho  could  baptize  none  whose 
hearts  God  had  not  touched. 

The  simple-minded  missionary  had  clear 
views  of  New  Testament  teaching,  and  dared 
to  hold  firmly  fast  to  apostolic  usage,  and 
would  baptize  no  adults  save  those  who,  like 
Pentecostal  converts,  were  "  pricked  in  their 
heart"  and  "believed."  The  governor  had 
no  answer  ready  to  meet  the  biblical  argu- 
ment, but  had  the  usual  reply,  always  too 
easy  to  resort  to,  and  often  quite  too  convinc- 
ing to  timid  souls — the  appeal  to  human  au- 
thority. He  declared  he  would  write  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  about  it,  insisting 
that  it  was  Johnson's  duty  to  mahe  Christians 
of  this  people.  To  which  again  he  replied 
that  there  was  One  only  who  could  make 
Christians,  and  that  he  could  and  would  bap- 
tize none  but  those  whom  he  believed  Grod 
had  thus  wrought  upon.  So  stubborn  was 
the  governor  in  his  purpose  to  follow  out  his 
notions  of  baptismal  regeneration  that  he 
threatened  to  employ  some  less  scrupulous 
Wesleyan  minister  to  perform  the  rite,  or  get 
more  advanced  ritualists  from  the  Society  for 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  147 

Promoting  Cliristian  Knowledge.  Johnson 
again  affirmed  his  readiness  to  baptize  all 
who  were  manifestly  penitent  for  sin  and 
willing  to  accept  Christ  as  Savionr,  but  he 
could  not  go  beyond  the  Word  of  the  Lord, 
even  at  the  command  of  a  governor.  The 
chief  magistrate  gave  up  the  contest  as  hope- 
less, and  contented  himself  with  calling  the 
immovable  Johnson  and  the  society  that  sent 
him  to  Africa  "  a  set  of  fanatics." 

The  missionary,  who  had  learned  too  much 
of  loyalt}'^  to  God  to  obey  human  dictates, 
found  that  this  was  not  the  only  matter  in 
which  conscience  compelled  resistance  to  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  colony.  He  refused 
to  enjoin  the  people  to  sing  "  God  save  the 
king,"  because  it  was  so  habitually  sung  over 
the  beer-pot  that  he  could  not  safely  intro- 
duce it  into  a  divine  service.  And  although 
the  governor  was  determined  to  impose  it  on 
the  people,  Johnson  would  not  submit,  believ- 
ing this  patriotic  hymn  so  tainted  with  god- 
less associations  that  it  was  like  a  garment 
spotted  with  the  flesh,  unfit  to  be  worn  by 
worshipers  in  a  prayer  service. 


MM  Si:yilN    YU/IRS   IN  SII.RR/I   l.liONl: 

Wliotluii"  Of  Mol.  lli(5  iiiissioiiJii-y's  ('()iirw(i 
always  comrnciMls  ilsclf  lo  oiii*  Jii<l;j:;Mi('n1  Jis 
wiH(i  nnd  scrisihld,  wo  ('.'umot  (|ii(\sii()u  oiilicr 
its  siiicci'ily  oi-  iiitT'('-i)i(lity ;  and,  in  view  of 
tho  toinpL'il  Ion  Ixjl'oro  wliicJi  so  iruuiy  fail  and 
fall,  of  bowing  to  Imrnari  aniliority  oven  at 
(!Xf)onso  of  conscionoo,  it  is  iinpossiblo  not  to 
ji(lniii-(!  tho  fixodnoss  of  pui-poso  that  mado 
liiinsl;uid  like,  (rihr.-iJI.-if  Jiinid  lli(5  wjivos,  linn, 
nntnovod,  jtnd  si^icin^ 

Whilo  ill  l<'i'(M'1()Vvn  ( !lii-istnias  was  a  d;iy 
of  roviilry,  if  not  of  riot,  tli(<  pcoplo  condiKrt- 
ing  tln^nisolvoH  in  niosi,  uiiso(^inly  fji.sliion, 
Julius  liiiii^  iiJI  nielli,  dniiii<('iin(^ss  stji,Ii<iii;^ 
tli(!  slr(!(?ts,  lions<!S  sot  on  fii'c^,  Jind  nuiroons 
.'ind  s(5ttl('J's  rc'idy  Jiiiy  nioiiicnt  for  .-in  ojx'ii 
biawl,  Johnson  saw  in  liis  own  li<^ld  pojico 
jind  (pji(it  provaibng,  ji,  ch^anly  dn^ssod  jind 
d(M;Oi"ons  cotripjiny  coining  to  clinrcli,  witlioni, 
a  sonnd  of  gnn-liring  or  a  sign  ol'  iiil<»xi('ji- 
lioii.  And  llio  n(!xt  d;i,y  (Tight  iiiiiidic*!  h;ippy 
po-opl(5  sat  <h)\vii  t(»g<'Mi(!r  to  a,  sort  of  lov(^- 
foast  Ix'foi-o  tiio  house  of  lh<;  niissionai-y. 
Thoy  had  th(!nis(!iv(!S  pn^pan^d  th(^  dinner, 
thoir    ('}Mp(!nt()rs     iruiking    tlio    tal)l(^s    .-iiid 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  149 

benches,  and  their  mechanics  bringing  the 
provisions  they  had  saved  against  the  feast- 
day,  while  others  cooked  them.  David  Noah, 
one  of  their  number,  asked  the  blessing, 
which  all  reverently  repeated  after  him.  And 
when  all  had  eaten  and  were  full,  they 
gathered  up  the  fragments,  that  nothing 
might  bo  lost.  What  a  contrast  to  the  can- 
nibal feasts  of  pagan  tribes ! 

The  mighty  passion  for  souls  that  swayed 
Johnson  had  a  strong  counter-current  to 
contend  with  in  his  hearty  affection  for  his 
wife.  In  1819  there  first  arose  a  demand, 
on  her  account,  for  a  pause  in  his  apostolic 
work.  Mi's.  Johnson's  health,  which  during 
all  their  stay  in  Sierra  Leone  proved  very 
frail,  had  at  this  time  become  seriously  and, 
as  it  proved,  permanently  impaired.  In 
1818  an  almost  fatal  illness  had  brought  her 
to  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and  the  same  symp- 
toms now  reappeared  with  even  greater  vio- 
lence, and  made  her  return  to  England  a 
matter  of  necessity.  Her  devoted  husband 
was  in  a  strait  betwixt  two,  nuich  perplexed 
as  to  questions  of  both  love  and  duty.    Loy- 


150  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

alty  to  his  wife  and  responsibility  for  his  large 
flock  each  pressed  its  peculiar  claims,  and  it 
was  for  a  time  doubtful  which  motive  would 
ultimately  prevail.  In  each  direction  his 
path  seemed  to  meet  a  "mountain  insur- 
mountable to  reason."  At  last  he  determined 
to  accompany  her  to  England. 

Here  perhaps  we  come  to  a  natural  halting- 
place  whence  to  look  in  general  survey  over 
the  work  accomplished  in  these  two  short 
years.  As  from  "  Inspiration  Point,"  which  in 
the  Yosemite  Valley  commands  a  view  of  the 
whole  of  that  vale  of  imposing  beauty,  we 
may  here  at  least  glance  at  the  stupendous 
changes  wrought  by  the  gospel  at  Hogbrook. 

This  repulsive  name,  which  had  given  place 
to  the  more  refined  title  Regent's  Town,  had 
come  originally  from  the  host  of  wild  hogs 
which  infested  the  small  stream  flowing  there- 
abouts; and  it  was  scarce  too  mean  to  de- 
scribe the  low  order  of  human  swine  which 
were  there  found  wallowing  in  their  own 
mire  and  filth.  What  more  could  be  ex- 
pected of  a  refuse  population,  the  offscouring 
of  the  earth,  swept  from  the  aUeys  of  London, 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  151 

and  emptied  out  of  those  devil's  galleys,  the 
slave-ships,  and  finding  a  dumping-ground  in 
Africa !  Here  in  Sierra  Leone  this  indiscrim- 
inate mass  of  humanity,  huddled  together 
without  moral  restraints  or  physical  control, 
gave  way  to  the  basest  of  animal  passions 
because  no  higher  motives  were  appealed  to ; 
and  the  life  thus  lived  was  so  unutterably 
low  in  its  level,  physically,  intellectually,  and 
morally,  that,  as  has  been  intimated,  lan- 
guage supplies  no  proper  colors  in  which 
to  paint  such  a  picture.  Hell  may  furnish  an 
adequate  dialect  of  description,  but  earth  has 
not  yet  supplied  one,  thank  Grod ! 

Can  it  be  credited,  even  upon  authentic 
testimony,  that  already  there  had  taken  place 
a  transformation  which  was  rather  a  trans- 
figuration? Worship  simple  and  sincere, 
decorous  and  spiritual,  on  the  Lord's  day, 
family  prayer  preceding  and  following  daily 
toils,  and  such  public  and  household  devo- 
tions displacing  a  superstition  and  idolatry 
too  low  to  be  dignified  by  the  name  of  wor- 
ship !  Grree-gree  charms  and  witchcraft,  red 
water  and  devils'  houses,  vile  practices  and 


152  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

abhorrent  usages,  had  ah^eady  given  way  to 
decent  attire  and  civilized  habits,  to  Christian 
wedlock  and  well-regulated  household  life, 
to  Bibles  and  prayer-books,  missionary  so- 
cieties and  consecrated  offerings. 

Johnson's  passion  for  souls  led  to  occasional 
excursions  into  the  surrounding  country,  a 
few  references  to  which  may  be  sufficient 
without  repetitious  details.  For  example, 
early  in  1819  he  went,  in  company  with  Mr. 
Gates,  William  Tamba,  and  others,  to  Wilber- 
force,  on  the  northwestern  side  of  the  colony, 
and  Cape  Shilling,  forty  miles  beyond,  to 
Margenna  and  Robiss,  and  made  a  complete 
circuit.  He  undertook  tours  afoot,  going 
sometimes  as  far  as  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles  in  seven  days,  in  hopes  to  reach  those 
tribes  yet  un evangelized,  and  find  new  fields 
of  service  and  sacrifice,  and  win  new  trophies 
for  Christ.  In  all  these  excursions  he  found 
it  needful  almost  to  tear  himself  away  from 
the  simple-minded  converts,  who  were  in 
mortal  fear  lest  some  fatality  might  take 
from  them  the  teacher  to  whom  they  were 
devoted.     So  great,  however,  was  Johnson's 


THE  REGIONS   BEYOND  153 

yearning  to  sow  the  wider  wastes  about 
him  with  the  gospel  seed  that  but  for 
providential  hindrances  arresting  his  ac- 
tivities he  would  doubtless  have  overleaped 
the  bounds  of  the  colony  in  larger  and  more 
permanent  operations.  He  might,  indeed, 
have  anticipated  Livingstone  as  Africa's  mis- 
sionary explorer  and  general. 

Everywhere  in  these  tours  into  regions 
beyond  were  found  proofs  of  a  similar  deg- 
radation to  that  originally  confronted  in 
Hogbrook.  Among  the  Cosso  people  marks 
of  the  reign  of  superstition  abounded.  Scarce 
a  house  had  not  its  wooden  post  and  broken 
bowl  for  its  defense.  At  Margenna  they 
were  warned  against  approaching  one  partic- 
ular house,  as  it  was  haunted,  and  approach 
would  be  fatal;  and  to  confirm  this  a  dead 
horned  owl  was  pointed  out  hanging  near 
it,  which,  as  it  was  stoutly  maintained,  had 
dropped  down  dead  for  presuming  to  fly 
over  it. 

One  important  result  of  this  tour  (1819) 
was  that  both  Mr.  Johnson  and  Mr.  Gates  felt 
so  well  satisfied  as  to  the  manner  in  which 


154  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

William  Tamba  had  addressed  the  natives 
that  both  he  and  William  Davis  were  taken 
into  the  society's  service  to  act  as  messen- 
gers of  salvation  in  native  districts.  The 
examination  of  these  two  men  previous  to 
their  being  thus  set  apart  revealed  the  same 
motives  and  spirit  as  in  the  most  mature 
saints — another  evidence  of  the  Spirit's  teach- 
ing. In  their  simple  language  we  find  a  holy 
humility  and  self-distrust,  coupled  with  a 
deep  desire  to  be  of  use,  a  simple  faith  in 
Grod's  call  and  help,  and  a  courageous  fear- 
lessness in  accepting  whatever  risk  was 
involved.  And  the  society's  committee,  in 
approving  this  new  stej)  of  sending  native 
teachers  among  their  countrymen,  ad^ased  a 
well-digested  system  whereby  competent  con- 
verts should  be  selected,  trained,  and  habitu- 
ated to  such  evangelistic  service. 

The  secretaries  of  the  Chui'ch  Missionary 
Society  wrote  to  Johnson  (April  8,  1819), 
expressing  their  judgment  that  he  had  been 
"  rather  too  slow  to  baptize,"  they  taking  the 
position  that  "baptism  is  a  means  of  grace, 
and  may  be  a  tm-niug-point  in  decision  of 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  155 

heart  for  Christ."  They  also  advised  that  in 
cases  of  "  baptized  persons  dying  "  he  might 
safely  "  use  the  burial  service,  whatever  their 
previous  character,"  arguing  that  to  refuse 
implied  a  "needless  scrupulosity"  and  an 
assuming  of  "  a  judgment  of  condemnation." 

The  same  letter  informed  him  that  a  sec- 
ond chaplain,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Garnsey,  was 
about  to  come  to  the  colony. 

While  the  critical  illness  of  Mrs.  Johnson 
made  her  immediate  return  to  England 
necessary,  and  demanded  his  accompanying 
her  (for  she  needed  such  care  as  only  a  hus- 
band can  give),  yet  it  seemed  impossible  to 
leave  the  people.  Over  fifty  negroes  were 
added  in  February  to  the  church,  and  many 
more  were  candidates,  so  that  nearly  every 
night  was  spent  in  examination,  and  some 
cases  of  conversion  were  as  startling  as  the 
change  of  a  lion  into  a  lamb. 

As  the  time  drew  near  for  Mr.  Johnson  to 
sail  for  England  the  need  seemed  to  be  only 
the  more  imperative  for  him  to  remain  where 
he  was.  The  number  of  communicants  now 
reached  two  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and 


156  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

their  course  of  life  was  such  as  became  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  and  put  to  silence  all  cavil- 
ing. All  the  people  seemed  hungry  for 
righteousness,  and  a  deep  seriousness  per- 
vaded the  schools.  Moreover,  in  March,  1819, 
the  boys'  school-house  was  burned,  and  the 
girls'  house  and  Johnson's  own  dwelling  were 
in  danger;  but  prayer  was  earnestlj^  offered 
for  deliverance,  and  the  wind,  which  at  the 
beginning  was  so  boisterous  as  to  threaten 
a  conflagration,  ceased,  and  a  complete  calm 
followed,  and  all  the  i^eople  saw  the  flames 
ascend  perpendicularly ,  and  acknowledged  the 
hand  of  God.  Such  destruction  made  neces- 
sary a  rebuilding,  while  such  interposition  of 
God  emphasized  the  power  of  prayer  and 
opened  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  the  truth. 
On  April  11,  1819,  Mr.  Johnson  baptized  one 
hundred  and  ten  adults ;  it  was  a  pentecostal 
day. 

The  missionary  who  saw  this  work  of  God 
moving  at  such  pace  in  Regent's  Town  not 
only  went  on  evangelistic  tours  into  the  re- 
gions beyond,  but  sought  to  organize  mis- 
sionary societies   and  multiply  all  kindred 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  I57 

means  of  gracious  growth  and  service  in  the 
settlements  he  visited.  Though  at  times  very 
low-spirited,  he  found  refuge  from  morbid 
mental  states  in  abundant  work  for  others 
and  when  so  ill  that  he  seemed  pressed  down 
under  an  insupportable  burden  of  discourage- 
ment, he  remembered  that  we  are  "  immortal 
till  our  work  is  done,"  and  gloried  in  that 
strength  which  is  made  perfect  only  in  weak- 
ness. 

These  venturings  into  the  regions  beyond 
were  sometimes  occasions  of  peculiar  interest. 
During  the  nine  days'  journey  in  October, 
1820,  in  connection  with  the  Plantains,— a 
group  of  islands  where  he  found  about  two 
hundred  inhabitants, — Mr.  Johnson  went  in 
search  of  the  lime-trees  planted  by  the  Eev. 
John  Newton  when  he  had  been  wandering 
over  the  island  like  a  lost  sheep ;  and  he  found 
that  they  had  been  cut  down,  but  from  the 
trunk  of  one  new  branches  had  shot  forth ; 
and  a  hymn-book  also  was  discovered,  several 
hymns  in  which  were  of  Newton's  own  com- 
position. Thus,  on  the  very  spot  where  this 
converted  slave-trader  had  wandered  in  is^no- 


158  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

rance  sixty-five  years  before,  and  planted 
lime-trees  for  his  amusement,  his  hymns  were 
still  being  sung  in  the  Sherbro  tongue. 

In  April,  1821,  Johnson  learned  that  the 
missionaries  had  succeeded  in  getting  laud 
sufficient  to  begin  a  colony  in  tlie  Bassa 
country.  When  the  news  reached  his  ears 
his  emotion  could  not  be  expressed.  Mr.  Cates 
had  been  encoui*aged  to  go  into  that  country 
with  reference  to  establishing  a  mission,  and 
he  had  died  of  fatigue,  which  had  caused 
Johnson  to  bear  a  heavy  burden.  Now,  for 
the  first  time,  that  burden  had  been  relieved, 
for  had  Mr.  Cates  not  gone  there,  the  mis- 
sionaries would  not  have  received  land.  The 
king  had  made  an  agreement  with  him  which 
opened  the  way  immediately,  and  now  the 
prince,  the  king's  son,  came  with  ^Mr.  Davis 
as  a  token  of  good  faith.  AVhen  the  two 
entered  the  evening  school,  the  natives  of  the 
Bassa  country  surrounded  the  prince,  affec- 
tionately embraced  him,  and  inquired  for 
their  relatives,  laughing  for  joy  when  they 
heard  that  their  parents  were  alive  and  that 
the  gospel  would  soon  be  sounding  in  their 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  159 

ears.  The  scene  was  simply  indescribable, 
and  would  have  drawn  tears  from  eyes  un- 
used to  weep. 

There  was  a  sense  in  which  the  regions 
beyond  were  frequently  brought  near  to  the 
missionary's  doors.  On  May  15,  1821,  a  note 
received  from  J.  Reffell,  Esq.,  chief  super- 
intendent of  captured  negroes,  informed 
Johnson  that  a  vessel  had  been  brought  in 
with  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  miserable 
slaves,  and  that  he  and  the  acting  governor 
had  agreed  to  send  them  up  to  Regent's  Town, 
begging  him  to  go  to  Freetown  to  receive 
them.  He  went,  accompanied  by  some  of  the 
people,  those  who  remained  at  home  prepar- 
ing food  for  these  new-comers.  The  vessel 
was  a  small  schooner,  and  many  of  the  poor 
victims  were  actually  reduced  to  skeletons. 
Two  hundred  and  seventeen  slaves  were 
delivered  to  Johnson's  care,  the  rest  being 
placed  in  the  Leicester  Hospital.  He  had  to 
surround  them  by  his  people  as  they  marched 
out  of  Freetown  to  prevent  the  soldiers  of 
the  fort  seizing  some  of  the  women  for  wives. 

The  scenes  which  took  place  upon  the  ar- 


160  SE^EN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

rival  of  these  slaves  at  Eegent's  Town  defy 
description.  As  soon  as  they  came  in  sight 
all  the  people  left  their  houses  to  meet  them 
with  loud  acclamations.  When  they  saw  that 
the  new-comers  were  weak  and  faint,  they 
carried  the  feeblest  of  them  toward  Mr. 
Johnson's  house  and  laid  them  on  the  ground, 
themselves  also  being  quite  exhausted.  Soon 
many  of  the  people  began  to  recognize  their 
friends  and  relatives,  and  there  was  a  gen- 
eral cry:  "0  massa,  my  sister,  my  brother, 
my  mother,  my  father,  my  countrywoman ! " 
The  poor  creatures,  who  had  recently  been 
taken  out  of  the  hold  of  a  slave-vessel,  faint 
and  but  half  conscious  of  what  had  befallen 
them,  did  not  know  whether  to  laugh  or 
cry  when  they  beheld  the  countenances  of 
those  whom  they  had  supposed  long  dead, 
but  whom  they  now  beheld,  clothed  and 
clean,  in  some  cases  perhaps  bearing  healthy 
children  in  their  arms.  The  people  ran  off 
to  their  houses,  brought  all  the  provisions 
they  had  made  ready,  and  shortly  over- 
powered these  unfortunates  with  messes  of 
every  description,   pineapples,  oranges,  and 


THE  REGIONS  BEYOND  161 

groundnuts  being  also  brought  out  in  great 
abundance. 

During  the  same  day  another  remarkable 
event  occurred — nothing  less  than  a  genuine 
earthquake,  which  shook  all  the  buildings ; 
but  even  this  made  less  impression  than  the 
wonderful  scenes  of  the  morning,  and  it  was 
a  long  time  before  these  lost  their  vividness. 

These  new-comers  had  to  be  distributed 
among  the  people,  several  of  whom  had  the 
joy  to  take  home  a  long-lost  brother  or  sister. 
There  were  many  most  affecting  incidents. 
One  of  the  little  girls  who  had  been  rescued 
was  clothed  in  the  raiment  of  a  school-girl, 
that  she  might  be  taken  to  church ;  and  when 
she  saw  the  number  of  people  gathered,  she 
ran  back  crying,  thinking  it  was  a  slave- 
market  and  she  was  again  to  be  sold.  She 
stammered  out  among  sobs  that  she  "had 
been  sold  too  much,  and  did  not  want  to  be 
sold  any  more."  By  October  fifty  out  of  two 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  of  the  newly  ar- 
rived slaves  had  died  as  the  effect  of  their 
confinement  and  half-starvation  on  ship- 
board. 


162     SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Another  addition  had  now  to  be  planned 
for  the  church,  which  was  enlarged  so  as  to 
be  eighty  feet  long  by  sixty-four  wide,  with 
galleries  all  around,  doubling  its  accommo- 
dations. 

Notwithstanding  his  trials,  labors,  and  dis- 
appointments, Johnson  felt  himself  to  be  the 
happiest  man  in  the  world,  and  declared 
that  he  would  not  exchange  his  situation  for 
all  the  crowns  on  earth;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  he  was  so  affected  by  the  sins  and  way- 
wardness of  the  people  that  he  was  a  Jere- 
miah, and  exclaimed,  "  Oh  that  my  head  were 
waters,  and  mine  eyes  a  fountain  of  tears,  that 
I  might  weep  day  and  night  for  the  slain  of 
the  daughter  of  my  people ! "  In  October, 
1822,  one  hundred  and  eighty  more  were 
received  from  a  slave-vessel,  thus  increasing 
the  population  to  nineteen  hundred.  The 
regions  beyond  were  sending  their  popula- 
tion to  his  very  doors. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN   THE   FUENACE   OF  AFFLICTION 

The  spirit  is  often  willing  when  tlie  flesh  is 
weak.  It  is  one  of  the  sore  trials  of  faith 
that  in  more  senses  than  one  it  has  to  wrestle 
against  flesh  and  blood.  Weakness  hinders 
even  those  who  are  no  longer  slaves  of  wicked- 
ness, and  infirmities  of  the  body  oppress  many 
a  saint  who  is  strong  in  faith  and  heroic  in 
purpose.  To  learn  to  halt  for  a  time,  especially 
for  an  indefinite  time,  and,  while  yearning  and 
burning  with  intense  desire  for  active  service, 
to  be  compelled  to  rest,  perhaps  to  resign 
ourselves  to  passive  suffering — this  is  one  of 
the  last  and  hardest  tasks  given  us  in  the 
school  of  God. 

In  Johnson's  case  such  an  abandonment 
of  his  work  first  became  a  necessity  in  1819. 
He  had  long  fought  against  it,  but  at  last  suc- 

163 


164  SE^EN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

cuinbed  to  an  inevitable,  unavoidable  absence, 
and  knew  not  when  he  would  retui-n.  A  mys- 
terious divine  hand  pointed  to  the  shores  of 
Britain  a  man  whose  whole  heart,  like  Living- 
stone's after  him,  was  in  Africa. 

The  day  of  departure  came,  and  on  April 
22d — a  farewell  message  to  his  beloved  peo- 
ple, from  2  Corinthians  xiii.  11  having  been 
delivered  four  days  previously — Johnson 
embarked  on  board  the  Echo.  Hundi'eds  of 
negroes,  old  and  young,  men  and  women, 
walked  with  him  over  the  hard  five-mile  road 
to  Freetown,  and  took  leave  of  him  with 
many  tears,  as  the  Ephesian  elders  parted 
from  Paul  at  Miletus.  They  gave  striking 
expression  to  their  devotion  in  such  simple 
words  as  these:  "Massa,  suppose  no  water 
live  here,"  pointing  to  the  wide  sea,  "  we  go 
with  you  all  the  way  till  feet  no  morey 

Such  a  man  as  Johnson  could  not  be  hid. 
On  the  voyage  he  preached,  and  dealt  so 
faithfully  and  pointedly  with  the  passengers 
that  some  complained  to  the  captain  that  the 
preacher  was  personal.  It  was  the  message, 
not  the  man,  that  was  "personal";  and  so 


IN   THE  FURNACE  OF  AFFLICTION         165 

plain  was  it  that  he  was  impelled  only  by- 
unselfish  love  of  truth  and  love  of  souls  that 
before  the  vessel  reached  the  dock  the  mouths 
of  opposers  were  stopped,  and  foes  were 
turned  to  friends,  kind  and  attentive. 

As  the  main  purpose  of  this  narrative  is 
to  portray  with  all  possible  simplicity  and 
brevity  the  work  of  God  at  Sierra  Leone,  it 
will  suffice  to  give  only  a  passing  glance  at 
this  interval  of  absence  from  the  field. 

He  revisited  Hanover  in  Germany,  where 
his  mother  lived,  and  when  he  told  her 
that  he  was  her  son,  her  own  "  Augustine," 
she  could  not  believe  it  until  he  showed  her 
two  marks  upon  his  body  which  served  to 
identify  him.  Then  her  agitation  of  mind 
can  scarcely  be  conceived.  Tears  of  mingled 
joy  and  uncontrollable  excitement  ran  down 
her  cheeks.  One  of  his  sisters,  about  twenty 
years  old,  could  not  be  persuaded  to  leave  him, 
and  scarcely  slept  after  his  arrival,  sitting  be- 
side him  even  when  he  lay  in  bed.  Notwith- 
standing his  own  disapproval  of  the  plan  as 
inexpedient,  she  prepared  to  accompany  him 
wherever  he  might  go,  and,  following  him  on 


166     SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

his  return  to  England,  she  was,  after  due 
examination,  received  by  the  committee  of 
the  Church  Missionary  Society  as  a  school- 
mistress for  West  Africa.  Thus  Johnson's 
visit  to  his  own  kindred  was  attended  with 
peculiar  blessing,  for  which  his  gracious  ex- 
periences and  letters  had  prepared  the  way, 
and  lasting  impressions  were  made  upon  a 
large  circle  of  relatives  and  friends. 

While  in  England,  God  used  his  simple 
narrative  of  his  missionary  labors  in  Sierra 
Leone,  as  he  had  used  the  rehearsal  of  the  mis- 
sion tour  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  at  Antioch, 
for  the  refreshment  and  arousing  of  the 
churches.  The  respite  from  work  at  Regent's 
Town  was  not  a  loss  to  the  wider  work  of 
missions.  For  example,  when,  before  the  Berk- 
shire Church  Missionary  Association,  he  read 
letters  lately  received  from  native  converts 
and  communicants  in  his  church  in  Sierra 
Leone, — Tamba,  Davis,  Peter  Hughes,  David 
Noah, — a  gentleman  who  was  present  was  so 
struck  with  these  letters  as  confirming  Mr. 
Johnson's  statements  that  he  asked  to  be  in- 
formed whether  these  documents  were  origi- 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION  1G7 

nals  or  copies.  He  was  permitted  to  examine 
them  closely  for  himself,  and  he  then  frankly 
stated  his  conviction  that,  considering  the 
very  short  time  during  which  these  slaves  had 
been  under  instruction,  they  evinced  a  degree 
and  a  rapidity  of  progress  in  religious  know- 
ledge quite  unequaled.*  He  was  so  persuaded 
of  the  usefulness  of  Mr.  Johnson's  labors  that, 
although  a  member  and  supporter  both  of 
the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Know- 
ledge and  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  he  could  not 
withhold  active  support  from  the  Church 
Missionary  Society  also,  and  it  was  at  his 
suggestion  that  a  resolution  was  passed  favor- 
ing the  publication  of  these  letters.  Mr. 
Johnson  attended  meetings  and  addressed 
audiences  at  Saffron-Walden,  Suffolk,  Exeter, 
Teignmouth,  and  other  places,  and  every- 
where great  blessing  attended  his  words  of 
witness.  But  Sierra  Leone  drew  him  with 
a  strange  and  irresistible  force,  and,  as  Mrs. 
Johnson's  health  was  already  greatly  im- 
proved, in  less  than  five  months  after  his 

*  Appendix  11. 


ICS  SnyilN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

arrival  in  England  preparations  were  made 
for  his  return.  On  the  19th  of  November,  at 
Freemasons'  Hall  in  London,  he  gave  a  de- 
tailed account  of  the  remarkable  scenes  of 
transformation  he  had  already  witnessed  at 
Regent's  Town,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  which 
produced  the  profounder  impression — the 
marvelous  changes  of  which  he  had  been  the 
instrumental  means,  or  the  simplicity  and 
humility  which  were  manifested  in  the  whole 
narration.  The  minds  of  all  present  were 
deeply  moved,  and  this  brief  visit  to  England 
served  to  rivet  attention  upon  the  field  to 
which  he  returned. 

On  December  27tli,  with  their  band  of  new 
helpers,  he  and  his  wife  reembarked  for  Africa 
in  the  ship  Maida,  and  on  January  31,  1820, 
reached  Freetown. 

On  landing  he  was  met,  as  might  be  anti- 
cipated, by  a  welcome  home  which  was  char- 
acteristically hearty.  A  man  who  saw  him 
coming  ashore  ran  quickly  five  miles  to  Re- 
gent's Town  with  the  news ;  and  Mr.  Wilhelm 
had  just  concluded  the  daily  evening  service 
when  he  rushed  in  among  the  congregation 


IN   THE  FURNACE  OF  AFFLICTION  1G9 

crjang,  "All  hear!  all  hear!  Mr.  Johnson 
come !  "  The  confusion  and  excitement  over- 
leaped all  bounds.  The  whole  assembly 
leaped  to  its  feet  as  one  man,  and  such  as 
could  not  wait  to  get  out  at  the  doors  actually 
jumped  out  at  the  windows.  Mr.  Johnson 
testified  that  he  had  never  in  his  life  shaken 
hands  as  on  that  day,  though  he  took  care  not 
to  lose  any  of  Ms  finger-nails  in  consequence 
of  this  incessant  and  painful  handshaking,  as 
had  been  the  case  when  he  left  six  months  be- 
fore. But  the  joy  of  those  simple-minded  peo- 
ple made  him  quite  insensible  to  any  physical 
discomfort  due  to  their  wild  enthusiasm. 

One  of  the  first  matters  claiming  his  atten- 
tion was  a  letter  which  had  come,  in  his  ab- 
sence, from  the  secretaries  in  London,  having 
reference  to  the  loud  outcries  and  violent  fits 
of  weeping,  already  noted  as  often  hindering 
the  decorous  conduct  of  public  worship.  The 
letter  called  attention  to  the  necessity  of 
carefully  guarding  against  Satan's  devices, 
and  referred  to  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
African  tribes,  their  imperfect  knowledge  of 
religion  and  their  limited  experience  in  the 


170  SEyEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

divine  life,  their  imperfectly  formed  judg- 
ments and  their  constitutional  susceptibihty 
to  excitement.  The  wisdom  of  a  sound  mind, 
evinced  in  this  whole  communication,  showed 
that  the  Church  Missionary  Society  then,  as 
now,  was  administered  by  men  conspicuous 
not  only  for  sterling  piety,  but  for  sanctified 
common  sense.  Johnson  felt,  however,  what 
many  a  missionary  has  felt  since,  that  it  is 
one  thing  to  give  wise  counsel  from  a  secre- 
tary's desk  in  the  center  of  an  enlightened  na- 
tion, and  quite  another  to  confront  an  actual 
difficulty  on  the  field,  in  the  midst  of  an  ig- 
norant, uncultivated,  superstitious  throng  of 
negroes  recently  rescued  from  the  yoke  of 
abject  slavery.  Many  a  theory  of  treatment, 
which  is  as  symmetrical  and  beautiful  as  the 
geometrical  web  which  a  spider  weaves,  is  as 
frail  and  weak  when  applied  to  the  practical 
evil  which  needs  correction  or  restraint.  It 
reminds  one  of  the  boastful  French  surgeon 
who,  having  treated  a  large  number  of  criti- 
cal cases,  confessed  that  he  had  in  no  case 
saved  the  patient's  life,  but  insisted  that  the 
operation  ivas  very  hrilliant. 

A   supreme    sorrow    and    trial,   however, 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION  111 

awaited  Mr.  Johnson's  return.  When  he 
entered  Regent's  Town  it  was  about  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening  and  bright  moonlight ; 
but  that  silver  radiance  only  served  to  dis- 
close the  fact  that  ruins  confronted  him 
everywhere.  The  church  tower  and  the 
school-house,  which  was  being  roofed  in 
when  he  left,  were  now  leveled  to  the  ground ; 
the  other  school-house,  intended  for  the  boys, 
was  pulled  down  as  far  as  the  windows,  and 
the  fences  were  down  about  his  yard  and  gar- 
den and  the  cultivated  field.  The  hospital 
was  as  he  had  left  it,  no  progress  having  been 
made,  and  all  else,  including  the  church  build- 
ing, was  in  a  most  deplorable  state.  In  fact, 
the  town  was  scarcely  recognizable. 

Closer  examination  showed  more  serious 
declension  in  spiritual  things.  Several  of  his 
church-members  had  sadly  backslidden,  but 
not  without  cause.  In  his  subsequent  letter 
to  the  directors  he  says :  "  I  thought  that  I 
had  left  a  friend  and  a  brother  here  when 
I  left  this  place,*  ,but  how  have  I  been  de- 
ceived!"    Rachel  Grarnon,  Hagar  Johnson, 

*  By  his  own  request  a  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morgan  had  been  put 
in  charge  of  the  work  during  his  absence. 


172  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

and  Martha  Johnson  had  actually  been 
flogged  out  of  church,  on  Sunday,  by  his  sub- 
stitute. These  girls  had  for  three  years  been 
Mr.  Johnson's  household  servants,  and  one 
of  them  had  just  risen  from  a  sick-bed.  Ra- 
chel bore  for  considerable  time  the  marks  of 
the  whip  on  her  back ;  nor  could  the  victims 
of  this  outrage  tell  why  this  flogging  had 
been  inflicted,  or  why  they  were  thus  driven 
from  the  house  of  worship,  Mrs.  Wilhelm 
gave  them  all  an  excellent  character,  attesting 
their  uniformly  consistent  Christian  behavior. 
It  gradually  transjiired  that,  so  soon  as 
Johnson  had  gone,  his  plans  had  been  upset 
and  new  ones  formed,  and  the  whole  town 
brought  into  confusion.  The  pay  of  some  of 
the  work-people  had  been  reduced,  and  such 
as  were  not  willing  to  accept  less  wages  had 
been  told  to  go  elsewhere,  so  that  the  popu- 
lation of  the  place  had,  from  this  and  other 
causes,  been  thinned.  The  missionary  society 
had  been  virtually  dissolved ;  no  one  had  for 
four  or  five  months  spoken  of  it  or  done  any- 
thing to  feed  its  flame,  no  sermon  being 
preached,  no  offerings  being  collected ;  and  a 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION  173 

fire  that  has  no  fuel  will  of  course  die  down 
and  go  out.  The  benefit  society  would  like- 
wise have  gone  to  ruin  had  not  the  members 
of  it  themselves  kept  up  the  interest  in  it. 

Mr.  Wilhelm  had  done  all  he  could  to  re- 
store former  prosperity,  but  with  only  partial 
success.  Through  an  administration  so  un- 
wise as  to  be  almost,  if  not  quite,  unchristian, 
the  little  church  had  been  well-nigh  wrecked. 
Yet  all  that  Mr.  Johnson  wrote  to  the  direc- 
tors was  without  a  trace  of  resentment:  "I 

pity  Mr. ,  and  heartily  forgive  him,  and 

pray  that,  if  he  goes  out  again  elsewhere,  he 
may  be  possessed  of  a  more  humble  spirit." 

With  the  return  of  the  beloved  pastor  the 
church  rapidly  regained  its  former  state.  He 
invited  and  exhorted  the  people  to  come  to- 
gether, revive  their  missionary  society  and 
renew  their  offerings,  and  they  cordially 
responded.  The  church  had  gone  through 
the  furnace  of  trial  and  was  not  consumed; 
over  two  hundred  and  fifty  communicants 
remained,  and  on  this  basis  the  rebuilding  of 
the  work  must  be  carried  on. 

As  in  every  other  crisis,  God's  servant  re- 


174  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

sorted  to  prayer.  As  he  confronted  the  dis- 
asters that  in  his  absence  had  come  upon  the 
little  flock,  under  a  grief  that  would  have 
crushed  most  other  men,  he  simply  took 
refuge  in  the  old  promise  through  which  the 
light  first  came  into  his  soul : 

"  Call  upon  Me  in  the  day  of  trouble ; 
I  will  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  glorify  Me." 

A  prayer-hearing  God  once  more  appeared 
for  his  deliverance.  At  the  throne  of  grace 
in  the  secret  pavilion  with  God  he  got  peace 
and  so  communicated  it,  removing  the  jeal- 
ousy and  envy  which  had  been  the  cause  of 
all  the  differences  between  brethren,  and  him- 
self setting  the  example  of  unselfish  love. 
He  himself  never  caused  unpleasantness  or 
estrangement.  Bearing  patiently  with  a  meek 
and  quiet  spirit  all  that  was  unkind  and  un- 
just, he  became  not  only  a  peacekeeper,  but 
a  peacemaker,  though  never  at  the  expense  of 
truth  or  the  risk  of  principles.  "  The  wisdom 
that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then  peace- 
able." 
His  holy  zeal  was,  throughout,  a  large  factor 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION         175 

in  his  success.  In  the  midst  of  all  these 
arduous  toils,  made  heavier  by  these  trials, 
he  writes:  "Ah,  who  would  not  be  a  mis- 
sionary to  Africa !  Had  I  ten  thousand  lives, 
I  would  willingly  offer  them  all  for  the  sake 
of  one  poor  negro."  Such  devotion  is  the 
impregnable  armor  of  love,  and  enables  one 
to  bear  all  things  and  be  more  than  a  con- 
queror. 

His  humility  also  made  him  self-distrustful 
and  therefore  the  less  prone  to  judge  others 
harshly.  He  did  not  wince  under  reproof, 
but  rather  sought  rebuke  when  needful.  He 
begged  the  secretaries  to  counsel  and  ad- 
monish him  as  to  whatever  they  regarded  as 
out  of  the  way;  he  thought  of  himself  as  a 
most  unworthy  and  inefficient  missionary, 
and  welcomed  even  a  smiting  as  a  kindness 
if  it  might  help  him  to  greater  service. 

No  small  part  of  the  distressing  vexations 
of  this  field  arose  from  resident  Europeans, 
as,  for  example,  those  in  Freetown,  whose 
ungodly  passions  found  vent  not  only  in 
breaking  the  Sabbath  for  themselves,  but  in 
getting  intoxicated  and  going  about  on  horse- 


176  SEVEN   YE/fRS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

back  through  the  villages,  annoying  church- 
goers who  were  on  their  way  to  or  from  the 
house  of  worship. 

One  of  the  native  converts  expressed  his 
quaint  philosophy  of  the  trials  through  which 
they  had  passed  in  these  words :  "  Suppose 
somebody  beat  rice;  he  fan  it,  and  all  the 
chaff  fly  away  and  the  rice  get  clean.  Now, 
massa,  we  be  in  that  fashion  since  you  gone : 
God  fan  us  that  time  for  true." 

In  January,  1821,  in  a  letter  to  the  secre- 
taries in  London,  Johnson  made  mention  of 
another  trial  which  it  was  for  him  very  hard 
patiently  to  bear,  as  it  involved  risk  to  the 
converts,  over  whom  he  watched  with  pa- 
rental care  and  to  whom  he  was  daily  impart- 
ing his  own  life  and  soul,  because  they  were 
so  dear  to  him.    Let  us  record  his  own  words : 

"  The  devil,"  he  writes,  "  is  going  about  in 
two  different  shapes — like  a  roaring  lion,  and 
like  an  angel  of  mercy.  Some  of  our  people 
have  become  very  wicked,  and  communicants 
suffer  persecution;  but  this  only  shows  the 
difference  between  the  seed  of  the  woman 
and  the  seed  of  the  serpent.  Thirty  men  and 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION         111 

women  are  under  instruction  with  reference 
to  baptism." 

Two  months  later  a  severe  cold  settled 
upon  his  lungs,  inducing  violent  coughing 
and  nearly  proving  fatal.  This  added  greatly 
to  his  burdens.  About  the  same  time  a 
spirit  of  opposition  and  persecution  seemed 
to  be  let  loose  among  the  people.  Mere  pro- 
fessors of  religion,  who  had  no  real  hold  upon 
the  truth  or  upon  the  Lord  Jesus,  carried  to 
and  fro  by  every  wind  of  doctrine  and  made 
the  victims  of  the  sleight  and  cunning  crafti- 
ness of  deceivers,  joined  the  openly  profane 
and  spoke  against  him  and  his  co-workers  in 
scorn  and  ridicule.  He  felt  like  David  when 
pursued  by  enemies  who  lay  in  wait  for  him 
on  every  side;  but,  like  David,  he  found  a 
strong  tower  of  refuge  in  Grod,  and  the  work 
of  Christ  proceeded. 

There  was  another  fire  of  trial  through 
which  Johnson  was  called  to  pass;  in  fact, 
it  might  be  said  that  he  was  never  out  of  this 
furnace  of  affliction,  though  its  heat  was  not 
always  equally  intense.  We  refer  to  his  over- 
whelming conviction  of  his  own  sinfulness 


178  SEFEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

and  unworthiness.  He  was  a  marvelous 
missionary  in  the  measure  of  his  simple  faith, 
implicit  obedience,  and  successful  work.  Yet 
the  more  God's  mercy  and  goodness  were 
displayed  to  him,  the  more  unworthy  and 
ungrateful  he  seemed  to  himself  to  be.  The 
goodness  of  God  in  a  very  emphatic  sense  led 
him  to  repentance.  It  appeared  to  him  as 
though  no  human  creature  could  be  more 
depraved,  and  he  records  his  conviction  that 
in  the  whole  world  of  sinners  there  could  be 
no  one  worse  than  himself.  How  far  these 
were  morbid  moods,  owing  in  part  to  con- 
stitutional habits  of  self-reproach  and  in  part 
to  diseased  conditions  of  body,  it  is  now  im- 
possible to  determine.  But  of  one  thing  no 
doubt  is  left :  he  had  learned  the  great  lesson 
that  the  only  ground  of  hope  which  is  at  all 
solid  and  unchanging  is  that  which  is  ex- 
ternal, not  internal — a  salvation  which  is  of 
free  and  saving  grace  and  quite  independent 
of  all  human  merit ;  and,  like  Matthew  Henry, 
if  he  had  not  at  all  times  the  faith  of  assur- 
ance, he  had  the  faith  of  adherence,  and  never 
was  left  to  despair. 


Ihl   THE  FURNACE  OF  AFFLICTION         179 

Few  sorrows  cut  so  deeply  as  those  which 
are  vicarious,  and  most  of  all  when  evil 
threatens  our  best  beloved.  "  A  sword  shall 
pierce  thine  own  soul  also,"  was  the  brief  but 
awful  forecast  of  the  anguish  which  the  virgin 
mother  of  our  Lord  would  suffer  when  the 
spear  should  pierce  His  human  heart.  Mrs. 
Johnson's  illness  in  1822  was  so  severe  that 
the  doctors  directed  her  immediate  departure 
for  Europe ;  an  ulcer  was  forming  in  her  head ; 
and  on  the  4th  of  May  she  took  leave  of  her 
husband.  The  people  mourned  her  depar- 
ture, declaring  that  she  was  to  them  "like  their 
own  mother,"  which  was  true.  They  were 
prostrated  by  grief,  and  every  one  appeared 
to  mourn  and  weep.  Johnson  felt  that  he 
must  not  again  leave  his  people,  for  he  could 
not  forget  how,  when  the  shepherd  had  be- 
fore parted  with  his  flock  for  a  season,  the 
wolf  had  been  among  them  and  had  caught 
some  and  scattered  the  whole  flock.  Yet  he 
endured  a  great  fight  of  contending  feelings. 

When,  five  months  after  Mrs.  Johnson 
had  thus  sailed  for  England  alone,  a  rumor 
was  spread  by  an  arriving  vessel  that  she 


180  SEI^EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

had  died  at  sea,  her  husband's  mind  was 
kept  for  months  in  most  painful  suspense, 
more  especially  as  another  vessel,  that  left 
England  a  month  after  the  arrival  of  the 
Fletcher,  brought  no  letter  from  Mr.  Diiring 
and  no  tidings  from  Mrs.  Johnson.  And  yet, 
in  the  midst  of  all  these  labors  and  anxieties, 
he  redoubled  his  activities,  if  that  were  pos- 
sible, and  enjoyed  unusual  power  and  free- 
dom in  preaching.  From  every  new  distrac- 
tion of  care  he  found  escape  in  absorbing 
work  for  God  and  souls,  and  the  promise  was 
again  fulfilled:  "As  thy  days  so  shall  thy 
strength  be."  Sometimes  for  five  hours  he 
spoke,  yet  without  undue  fatigue;  and  al- 
though again  the  church  building  had  been 
enlarged,  the  audiences  were  too  gi'eat  to  be 
accommodated. 

The  report  of  Mrs.  Johnson's  death  was  not 
confirmed,  as  on  November  21st  a  letter  from 
the  captain  of  the  Fletcher  to  a  gentleman  in 
Freetown  stated  that  all  his  passengers  had 
been  safely  landed.  It  subsequently  tran- 
spired, however,  that  Mr.  Johnson's  mother 
was  dead,  and  the  surviving  members  of  the 


IN   THE  FURNACE   OF  AFFLICTION         181 

household    at    home   were    in    consequence 
plunged  into  the  depths  of  sorrow. 

Africa  was  indeed  a  "vale  of  tears,"  and 
Mr.  Johnson's  own  testimony  was,  "If  any 
one  wishes  to  experience  trials,  let  him  come 
to  Africa.  It  is  certainly  the  worst  climate 
in  the  world."  And  yet  so  much  was  this 
man  inspired  by  passion  for  souls,  and  so 
deeply  was  he  interested  in  his  work  and  his 
people,  that  he  adds,  "  There  is  nevertheless 
not  a  spot  in  the  world  that  I  like  better.  I 
could  not  live  elsewhere."  How  like  David 
Livingstone  that  sounds !  He  was  in  the  fur- 
nace of  affliction  in  Africa  for  thirty  years. 
Yet  nothing  could  wean  him  from  his  love 
for  the  Dark  Continent. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES 

Of  all  the  forms  of  the  self-life,  none  is 
more  subtle  than  self-glory.  Many  a  servant 
of  God  has  been  so  lifted  up  with  pride  by 
his  own  successes  as  to  be  utterly  disqualified 
for  further  use.  And  so  the  severest  test  of 
a  true  workman  is  this :  whether,  amid  all 
the  highest  honor  given  him  of  God  in  ser- 
vice, he  not  only  retains  humihty,  but  grows 
in  this  consummate  grace,  which  Andrew 
Murray  regards  as  the  very  "  beauty  of  holi- 
ness." 

"Let  another  praise  thee,  and  not  thine 
own  mouth,"  is  a  maxim  that  seldom  needs  to 
be  repeated  to  a  true  servant  of  God,  for  he 
well  knows  that  all  glory  belongs  to  his 
Master,  since  all  power  is  from  Him.  The 
mouth  that  is  active  in  one's  own  praise  is 

182 


THE  CLOUD  OF  IVITN ESSES  183 

the  sad  index  of  a  heart  that  has  not  learned 
that  primal  secret  of  all  service,  that,  even 
when  labors  are  most  abundant  and  harvests 
most  plentiful,  both  the  strength  for  the  toil 
and  the  increase  from  the  seed-sowing  are 
the  bestowments  of  God. 

Johnson  never  glorified  himself;  and,  in 
fact,  he  saw  nothing  in  himself  to  awaken 
complacency  or  afford  ground  for  boasting, 
so  that  his  humility  rather  grew  as  his  success 
increased.  Consequently  the  major  part  of 
this  great  work  of  Grod  would  never  have 
been  thus  widely  known  had  not  a  cloud  of 
witnesses,  not  only  from  within  but  from 
without  the  mission,  been  constrained  to  bear 
testimony. 

At  this  distance  of  time  it  is  difficult  to 
appreciate  the  rapidity  with  which  the  trans- 
formation of  the  community  at  Regent's 
Town  went  forward.  Mr.  Renner,  the  senior 
missionary  in  western  Africa,  after  a  visit 
thus  wrote,  as  early  as  January  2,  1817,  to 
Mr.  Pratt,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society : 
"  I  spoke  morning  and  evening  in  the  church 
to  a  people  that  seemed  to  be  devout  in- 


184  SEl/EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

deed.  Regent's  Town  is  fast  advancing  in 
getting  civilized  and  Christianized.  Almost 
every  night,  as  I  am  told,  one  or  another  is 
affected,  and  on  certain  nights  the  whole 
congregation  seem  impressed.  Judging  by 
appearance,  these  are  they  that  take  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence.  The  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  work  of  our  brother  is  no 
doubt  great  and  laborious  among  this  people, 
but  to  Johnson  all  is  easy  and  full  of  pleasure. 
It  is  surprising  to  what  a  degree  of  harmo- 
nious singing  both  sexes  have  attained,  as  if 
it  were  a  congregation  of  ten  years'  standing." 
Sunday,  November  23, 1817,  Captain  Welsh 
of  the  brig  Pyrenees  spent  at  Regent's  Town, 
having  been  an  old  acquaintance  of  John- 
son's in  London.  When  the  bell  rang  the  first 
time,  Johnson  and  Welsh  themselves  found  it 
difficult,  and  in  fact  impossible,  to  get  in  by 
the  doors,  and  had  to  find  their  way  through 
the  church  tower.  Not  only  was  the  building 
thus  filled,  but  some  were  sitting  outside  on 
boards.  The  sermon  was  from  John  v.  6: 
"  Wilt  thou  be  made  whole  ? "  Captain  Welsh 
was  dehghted,  and  said,  "  I  have  to-day  seen 


THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES  185 

what  I  never  saw  before.  Wliat  would  not 
our  London  friends  give  for  such  a  sight ! 
God  has  blessed  your  labors  beyond  descrip- 
tion. I  had  heard  of  your  success,  but  could 
not  believe  what  I  heard."  The  modest  mis- 
sionary could  only  reply,  as  usual :  "  To  God 
be  all  the  glory,"  for  he  habitually  turned 
attention  from  himself  to  Him  who  is  the 
fountain  of  all  blessing. 

Mr.  Morgan — who  had  undertaken  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  mission  during  Mr.  John- 
son's absence,  and  who  had  exhibited,  as  we 
have  seen,  such  surprising  lack  of  good 
temper,  administrative  skill,  and  Christian 
discretion,  if  nothing  worse,  and  who  was 
entirely  recalled  from  the  field  in  conse- 
quence— would  not  be  very  likely  to  give  any 
too  partial  an  account  of  Johnson's  work. 
Yet  on  his  return  to  London  he  made  to  the 
committee  a  report  which  has  the  highest 
value,  because  it  cannot  have  been  colored  by 
any  personal  attachment  to  his  predecessor, 
from  whom  he  had  in  some  measure  been 
alienated.  Such  testimony  borne  to  another's 
success  is  a  proof  of  its  reality  which  cannot 


186  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

be  set  aside,  and  should  be  embodied  in  this 
narrative.* 

When  -^schines  heard  unstinted  praise 
of  Demosthenes'  oration  "  On  the  Crown," 
he  was  constrained  to  say,  notwithstanding 
that  oration  was  directed  against  himself, 
"Ah,  you  should  have  heard  it  yourself;  it 
was  a  masterpiece ! "  And  what  shall  we  say 
when  even  the  verdict  of  foes  also  was  in 
Johnson's  favor?  When  Satan  bestirs  him- 
self against  God's  servants,  it  is  probably 
because  his  craft  is  in  danger.  It  was  when 
Paul  and  his  fellow- witnesses  were  turning 
the  Ephesian  world  upside  down  that  Deme- 
trius raised  his  uproar.  In  1821  a  West  In- 
dian rumseUer — whose  infernal  business  was 
fast  coming  to  ruin  through  the  faithful 
preaching  of  Johnson  against  drunkenness 
and  all  that  led  to  it — lay  in  wait  with  a 
loaded  gun  to  shoot  him ;  and  so  obvious  was 
his  murderous  intent  that,  after  repeated 
proofs  had  been  afforded  of  his  hateful  malice, 
the  missionary  unwillingly  lodged  a  complaint 
against  him.   But  that  man's  loaded  gun  was 

*  Appendix  lU. 


THE  CLOUD   OF  IVITNESSES  187 

an  indirect  witness  to  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion. Satan  may  well  war  against  a  trans- 
formation so  radical  that  it  was  rather  a 
transfiguration. 

In  the  report  of  the  local  authorities  at 
Sierra  Leone  sent  to  the  home  government 
in  January,  1819,  such  changes  as  have  been 
described  were  formally  noted,  and  the  of- 
ficial document  thus  concludes  (let  us  embody 
the  very  words,  as  a  most  emphatic  testimony 
on  the  part  of  secular  magistrates) : 

"  Let  it  be  considered  that  not  more  than 
three  or  four  years  have  passed  since  the 
greater  number  of  Mr.  Johnson's  popula- 
tion were  taken  out  of  the  holds  of  slave- 
ships;  and  who  can  compare  their  present 
condition  with  that  from  which  they  were 
rescued  without  seeing  manifest  cause  to 
exclaim,  'The  hand  of  Heaven  is  in  this'! 
Who  can  contrast  the  simple  and  sincere 
Christian  worship  which  precedes  and  follows 
their  daily  labors  with  the  groveling  and 
malignant  superstitions  of  their  original  state 
— their  gree-grees,  their  red  water,  their  witch- 
craft, and  their  devils'  houses— without  feel- 


188  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

ing  and  acknowledging  a  miracle  of  good 
which  the  immediate  interposition  of  the 
Almighty  alone  could  have  wrought?  And 
what  greater  blessing  could  man  or  nation 
desire  or  enjoy  than  to  have  been  made  the 
instruments  of  conferring  such  sublime  bene- 
fits on  the  most  abject  of  the  human  race? 

"If  any  other  circumstance  could  be  re- 
quired to  prove  the  immediate  interposition 
of  the  Almighty,  we  have  only  to  look  at  the 
plain  men  and  simple  means  employed  in 
bringing  about  the  miraculous  conversion 
that  we  have  recorded.  Does  it  not  recall  to 
mind  the  first  diffusion  of  the  gospel  by  the 
apostles  themselves?  These  thoughts  will 
occur  to  strangers  at  remote  distance  when 
they  hear  these  things,  and  must  they  not 
recur  much  more  forcibly  to  us  who  have 
these  things  constantly  before  our  eyes  ? " 

Another  notable  testimony  was  given  in 
April,  1819,  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jesty,  who,  hav- 
ing just  come  to  reinforce  the  missionary 
band,  paid  a  visit  to  the  field,  and  bore  their 
witness.    Mrs.  Jesty  wrote  to  her  sister : 

"I  wish  that  I  could  find  language  suffi- 


THE   CLOUD   OF   IVITNESSES  189 

ciently  descriptive  of  the  interesting  scenes 
which  we  have  witnessed  here.  Indeed,  they 
must  be  seen  before  the  facts  will  be  credited. 
Had  I  heard  the  circumstances  from  the  best 
authority,  I  could  not  have  conceived  it  pos- 
sible that  so  glorious  a  progress  could  have 
been  made  in  the  work  of  our  Grod  as  we  have 
beheld  since  we  have  been  staying  at  Regent's 
Town."  * 

In  April,  1821,  Mr.  Singleton,  a  member  of 
the  Society  of  Friends,  sent  out  to  glean  facts 
about  the  Dark  Continent,  arrived  at  Eegent's 
Town,  and  was  so  deeply  moved  by  what  he 
saw  that  he  was  scarcely  able  to  speak.  He 
was  astonished  to  see  these  wretched  slaves 
now  so  clean  and  tidy,  their  general  condition 
so  much  better  than  that  of  the  poorer  classes 
in  Great  Britain ;  and  to  find  Bibles  and  Tes- 
taments everywhere  on  the  tables  in  their 
houses  as  familiar  books. 

A  humorous  incident  occurred  in  connec- 
tion with  Mr.  Singleton's  visit.  Quaker-like, 
he  entered  the  church  without  taking  off  his 
hat.     This  was  an  act  quite  inexplicable  to 

*  Appendix  IV. 


190  SEVEN    YE/IRS  IN  SIER.R/1  LEONE 

the  native  Christians,  and  seemed  to  them 
shockingly  irreverent;  so  that  two  of  them 
boldly  went  up  to  him  and  politely  requested 
him  to  remove  his  hat,  which  he  did  with  a 
smile,  apparently  much  pleased  with  their  zeal 
for  God,  although  in  a  sense  it  was  not  accord- 
ing to  knowledge.  At  the  evening  meeting 
he  heard  from  one  of  the  native  women  a  very 
pathetic  and  effective  testimony : 

"When  me  think  about  the  great  things 
God  has  done  for  me,  me  do  not  know  what 
to  do.  When  me  was  in  my  own  country  they 
catch  us  all,  and  then  they  take  up  my  brothers 
and  sisters  and  kill  them.  Me  only  left," — 
here  her  sobs  almost  choked  her  utterance, — 
"  and  they  put  them  in  the  pot  and  boil  them 
and  eat  them.  Me  only  left.  What  great  things 
the  Lord  do  for  me !  Poor,  guilty  sinner,  me 
so  bad !    Only  the  good  Lord  Jesus  save  me." 

On  Mr.  Singleton's  return  he  published  a 
journal  of  his  tour  and  a  report,  in  which  he 
refers  to  Regent's  Town  and  the  great  work 
of  God  there.* 

It  was  during  this  same  year,  1821,  that  the 

*  Appendix  V. 


THE  CLOUD   OF  IVITNESSES  191 

Europeans  of  Freetown,  after  an  inspection, 
confessed  their  surprise  at  the  order,  industry, 
and  piety  of  the  people,  and  were  especially 
amazed  at  their  liberality,  they  having  that  year 
contributed  over  seventy-two  pounds  sterling 
(three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars).  The  mouths 
of  opposers  and  critics  were  so  effectually 
stopped  that  they  acknowledged  the  gospel 
to  be  the  only  adequate  means  of  civilizing 
such  heathen ;  and  the  gentlemen  of  Freetown 
were  so  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  general 
success  of  preaching  the  gospel  that  they 
publicly  paid  their  tribute  that,  above  all 
other  institutions,  those  of  Regent's  Town  had 
proved  most  beneficial  to  the  degraded  chil- 
dren of  ^Africa.  Editors  sought  interviews 
with  reference  to  publishing  accounts  of  the 
work,  and,  what  is  a  more  crucial  test,  many 
of  these  European  residents,  and  among  them 
the  governor,  ashed  Johnson  to  call  upon  them 
for  contributions  I  In  fact,  this  humble  man 
was  in  fear  lest  the  prosperity  that  exposed 
him  to  so  much  flattery  might  involve  serious 
risk  of  inflating  him  with  pride. 
An  American  vessel  arrived  in  March,  1821, 


192  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

with  missionaries  for  the  Sherbro  coast.  Two 
of  them,  Messrs.  Andrus  and  Bacon,  visited 
the  church  at  Regent's  Town.  Mr.  Andi'us 
left  on  record  his  testimony  that  he  had  sup- 
posed the  accounts  which  he  had  heard  to  be 
greatly  exaggerated,  but,  like  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  he  felt  that  the  half  had  not  been  told 
him.  He  had  never,  even  in  America,  seen 
any  church  filled  with  more  devout  and  de- 
corous hearers,  nor  so  large  a  body  of  com- 
municants behaving  with  more  piety  at  the 
Lord's  table.  Mr.  Bacon,  the  other  of  these 
American  visitors,  on  his  return  to  Philadel- 
phia published  a  glowing  account  of  his  ex- 
periences in  Africa,  which  we  likewise  pre- 
serve as  essential  to  the  completeness  of  this 
volume.* 

"We  record  another  unequivocal  tribute  to 
this  work  of  God  through  His  servant.  In 
1822,  at  a  quarter-session  at  Freetown,  his 
honor  the  chief  justice  observed  that  "ten 
years  before,  when  the  population  of  the 
colony  was  but  four  thousand,  there  were 
forty  cases  on  the  calendar  for  trial ;  but  that 

*  Appendix  VI. 


THE  CLOUD   OF  IVITNESSES  193 

now,  witli  a  population  of  sixteen  thousand, 
there  were  but  six  cases,"  and  he  congratu- 
lated the  magistrates  on  the  moral  improve- 
ment of  the  colony.  What  was  most  notice- 
able, however,  was  the  fact  that,  among  the 
criminal  cases,  there  was  not  one  from  any 
of  the  villages  under  the  superintendence  of 
a  missionary  or  schoolmaster;  so  that  his 
honor  dismissed  Johnson  and  his  consta- 
bles politely,  as  having  no  business  that  re- 
quired their  attendance  at  the  session.  The 
community  at  Regent's  Town  represented  a 
law-abiding  and  self-governing,  as  well  as  self- 
supporting  and  self -propagating,  church.  On 
December  27, 1821,  at  a  meeting  of  communi- 
cants, a  law  had  been  framed  by  themselves, 
that  if  any  person  should  begin  a  quarrel  or 
behave  as  did  not  become  a  Christian,  he 
should  be  turned  out  and  fined  five  pounds, 
or  be  confined  in  the  house  of  correction  for 
two  months.  All,  however,  conducted  them- 
selves with  such  propriety  that  there  was 
found  no  need  to  put  this  law  into  execution. 
The  work  was  its  own  witness.  Many  a 
lion  was, turned  into  a  lamb,  and  inquiring 


194  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

souls  who,  like  Noah's  dove,  could  find  no  rest, 
sought  refuge  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
Johnson's  methods  with  candidates  were  very- 
thorough.  When  he  received  them  for  in- 
struction he  appointed  a  time  when  all  should 
be  present;  he  then  read  over  their  names, 
places  of  abode,  etc.,  and  requested  certain 
communicants  to  watch  over  them,  and  if  they 
should  observe  in  them  any  improper  conduct 
to  inform  him ;  and  in  all  cases  of  unbecom- 
ing behavior  the  offender  was  dismissed  or 
kept  on  a  sort  of  probation.  All  candidates 
were  kept  three  months  on  trial,  subject  to  a 
searching  scrutiny.  This  was  found  to  be  the 
most  efficient  method  of  getting  acquainted 
with  the  real  conduct  and  character  of  intend- 
ing communicants.  No  pains  were  spared  to 
put  to  proof  the  reality  of  conversion. 

Few  forms  of  witness  are  more  convincing 
and  irresistible  than  those  found  in  the  death 
of  saints.  The  august  exchange  of  worlds 
is  a  crisis  in  any  man's  history,  and  in  most 
cases  a  decisive  test  of  genuineness  and  sin- 
cerity. A  faith  and  hope  and  love  that,  in 
the  darkness  of  the  dying  hour,  light  up  the 


THE  CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES  195 

valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  with  the  celes- 
tial torch  of  a  confident  assurance  may  well 
be  the  object  of  the  envy  of  the  unbeliever ; 
and  Balaam  is  not  the  only  slave  of  greed  or 
other  u.nholy  appetites  and  passions  who  has 
inwardly  said,  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his." 

Johnson  saw  converted  slaves  not  only 
living,  but  dying,  in  the  full  assurance  of 
their  high  calHng.  For  example,  on  Easter 
Sunday,  1820,  he  was  called  to  attend  the 
funeral  of  a  youth  by  the  name  of  George 
PauU,  and  spoke  from  Hebrews  ix.  27:  "It 
is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after 
this  the  judgment."  Concerning  the  dead,  he 
sent  home  a  tribute  whose  main  outline  fea- 
tures we  here  preserve. 

Five  years  previous  to  his  death  he  had 
been  taken  from  the  hold  of  a  slave-ship  a  mere 
lad.  In  1817  he  came  begging  to  be  taken 
into  the  school,  and  was  admitted,  and  within 
a  year  he  showed  signs  of  unusual  seriousness 
and  sobriety  of  mind,  and  shortly  gave  such 
evidence  of  the  working  of  God's  grace  that 
he  was  welcomed  into  the  church  and  bap- 


196  SE^EN    YEARS  IN  SI  ERR/1  LEONE 

tized  on  Christmas  day,  1818.  From  that 
time  his  walk  with  God  was  obvious  to  all 
observers.  Habitually  earnest  and  fervent 
in  spirit,  he  exhibited  singular  power  in 
prayer  and  skill  in  winning  souls.  A  severe 
cold,  caught  during  the  rainy  season  of  1819, 
fixed  itself  upon  him  and  brought  on  a  fatal 
attack  of  lung  disease.  When  he  died  he 
had  already  about  him  the  distinguishing 
marks  of  a  mature  and  experienced  saint. 
His  counsels  were  wise,  his  rebukes  tender; 
his  expressions  of  faith  in  God  and  resigna- 
tion to  His  will  most  Christ-like ;  his  joy  in 
God  and  his  heavenly  insight  into  truth  such 
as  are  seen  in  connection  only  with  the  ripest 
fruits  of  godliness ;  and  all  these  characteris- 
tics seemed  incredible  in  a  lad  of  sixteen. 
The  slave-boy  had  in  a  very  peculiar  sense 
been  made  into  the  Lord's  freeman,  and  knew 
not  only  the  clean  heart,  but  the  right,  the 
holy,  the  free  spirit.  He  had  thus  early  learned 
both  the  joy  of  God's  salvation  and  the  secret 
of  converting  sinners  unto  God.* 
Toward  the  clpse  of  the  year  1820  the  anni- 

*  Ps.  li.  12,  13. 


THE  CLOUD  OF  WITNESSES  197 

versary  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Church  Mission- 
ary Society  was  observed.  Twenty-one  mis- 
sionaries in  all  sat  down  at  the  same  board,  the 
largest  number  that  had  ever  dined  together 
in  the  western  African  mission  field.  Out  of 
the  whole  income  of  the  society  Mr.  Johnson's 
humble  church  had  that  year  contributed 
nearly  one  half,  considerably  over  fifty  pounds 
sterling. 

Thus,  from  a  multitude  of  independent 
sources  came  one  consenting  testimony  to 
the  work  of  God's  grace  at  Regent's  Town. 


CHAPTER  X 

AT  THE  DESIRED  HAVEN 

To  everything  earthly  there  cometh  the 
end,  but  to  the  true  saint  and  servant  of  God 
that  end  is  but  the  beginning  of  something 
nobler,  better,  purer,  and  more  satisfying. 
Life  here  ends,  that  life  elsewhere  may  begin ; 
or  rather  let  us  say  of  the  disciple's  life  that  at 
death  it  is  left  free  to  find  its  fullest  exercise, 
development,  and  enjoyment. 

In  no  one  thing,  perhaps,  does  our  cuiTent 
unbelief  more  reveal  itself  than  in  our  ceme- 
teries, where  over  the  graves  of  our  sainted 
dead  we  rear  monuments  with  essentially 
heathen  emblems  and  symbols.  What  place 
have  inverted  torches,  closed  urns,  broken 
columns,  fading  flowers,  in  resting-places  of 
saints?    If  to  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to 

198 


/IT  THE  DESIRED  HAFEN  199 

be  present  with  the  Lord,  these  symbols  of 
disaster,  defeat,  disappointment,  destruction, 
are  wholly  unfit  to  express  our  faith  and 
hope.   Our  blessed  Lord  taught  the  skeptical 
Sadducees  that  God  is  not  the  God  of  the 
dead,  but  of  the  living,  and  that  those  whom 
we  call  dead  all  live  unto  Him.     And  the 
Spirit  speaketh  expressly  of  the  blessedness 
of  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord,  that,  though 
they  rest  from  their  /«^&or5,— vexatious  toils, 
burdensome    exertions,— their    works— thQir 
truest  activities— accompany  them  into  the 
higher  sphere ;  and  that  they  are  before  the 
throne  of  God  and  serve  Him  day  and  night 
in  His  temple.     And  the  last  glimpse  we  get 
of  them  in  the  Apocalypse,  where  the  door  is 
opened  in  heaven,  is  that  of  a  sevenfold  per- 
fection, where  there  is : 

1.  "  No  more  curse  "—perfect  sinlessness ; 

2.  "The  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb" 
— perfect  government ; 

3.  "  And  His  servants  shall  serve  Him  " — 
perfect  service ; 

4.  "  And  they  shall  see  His  face  "—perfect 
communion ; 


200  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

5.  "And  His  name  shall  be  in  their  fore- 
heads " — perfect  resemblance ; 

6.  "  No  night  there  " — perfect  day ; 

7.  "  And  they  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever  " 
— perfect  glory. 

Johnson's  earthly  work  was  now  almost 
done.  In  seven  years  he  had  effected  results 
which  would  ordinarily  be  regarded  as  an 
abundant  reward,  if  crowning  the  labor  of  a 
full  lifetime.  But  all  this  extensity  and  inten- 
sity of  holy  toils  had  told  upon  his  physical 
frame  and  spirits.  Though  not  yet  forty  years 
old,  his  zeal  had  been  self-consuming,  and  his 
health  was  steadily  and  rapidly  declining. 
At  this  time  Mrs.  Johnson  was  so  much  better 
that  hope  was  entertained  of  her  being  able 
soon  to  return  to  Africa ;  but  the  last  attack 
of  ophthalmia  had  so  seriously  impaired  the 
sight  of  her  husband's  left  eye,  and  sympa- 
thetically of  the  right  eye  also,  as  to  threaten 
him  with  blindness ;  and  he  had  been  so  fre- 
quently scorched  in  the  furnace  of  African 
fever  that  his  whole  constitution  was  under- 
mined. In  February,  1823,  he  made  his  last 
report  to  the  secretaries  of  the  Church  Mis- 


AT  THE  DESIRED   HAyEN  201 

sionary  Society,  and  through  it  we  may  get 
our  last  survey  of  the  work  before  he  left  it 
forever. 

There  were  then  ten  different  stations  in 
Sierra  Leone,  with  an  aggregate  of  603  com- 
municants, 410  of  whom  were  at  Eegent's 
Town;  and  of  the  total  number  of  scholars 
(3168)  933  were  under  his  care.  In  this  letter 
he  refers  to  the  qualifications  of  missionaries 
and  schoolmasters  needed  at  Sierra  Leone, 
recommending  that  they  be  acquainted  not 
only  with  the  gospel,  but  with  husbandry 
and  mechanics,  arithmetic,  geography,  and 
land-surveying,  and  that,  withal,  they  should 
know  how  to  rule  well  their  own  houses.  This 
shows  the  sagacity  of  this  missionary  states- 
man, who,  with  all  his  humble  estimate  of  his 
own  capacity,  had  set  before  him  this  aim : 
to  rear  on  African  soil  a  MetlakaMla — a  model 
state — out  of  the  refuse  of  humanity  that  he 
found  at  Hogbrook. 

At  this  time  he  was  ministering  to  the  lar- 
gest congregation  he  had  ever  seen  gathered 
in  Africa,  and  the  church  building,  with  all 
its  repeated  enlargements,  was  far  too  small. 


202  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

Communicants  were  sometimes  obliged  to  re- 
main outside,  especially  when  for  any  reason 
converts  from  other  stations  met  with  those 
at  Regent's  Town ;  and  yet  the  edifice  would 
accommodate  two  thousand,  and  he  was  per- 
plexed how  to  provide  for  any  more. 

The  schools  were  improving,  and  over 
seven  hundred  had  been  taught  to  read.  The 
converts,  poor  as  they  were,  were  systematic, 
habitual,  self-denying  givers,  and  a  single 
offering,  taken  at  the  meeting  of  the  Re- 
gent's Town  Branch  Missionary  Association, 
amounted  to  over  ten  pounds  (fifty  dollars.) 

These  are  a  few  only  of  the  indications  of 
the  abundant  prosperity  of  the  work  of  God 
at  this  stage  of  its  history.  It  seemed  never- 
theless so  imperative,  on  the  whole,  that  John- 
son should  at  least  rest  for  a  season,  that  the 
secretaries  agreed  to  his  return  to  England, 
and  toward  the  end  of  April  he  embarked. 
When  he  set  sail  for  England,  the  superin- 
tendence of  Regent's  Town  devolved  upon 
Mr.  Norman. 

His  journal  makes  mention  of  one  Sarah 
Bickersteth,  the  first  of  her  nation  who  had 


AT  THE  DESIRED  HAVEN  203 

tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious.  She  was 
a  native  of  the  Kroo  country,  and  some  five 
years  previously,  while  yet  a  little  girl,  had 
been  brought  to  the  colony.  She  was  now  well 
grown,  and,  being  a  thoroughly  new  creature, 
was  very  sad  over  the  superstitions  of  her 
country  people,  and  very  desirous  to  serve 
her  newly  found  Saviour  in  missionary  labors. 
This  young  woman  was  Johnson's  compan- 
ion on  the  voyage,  and  to  her  care  was  com- 
mitted also  an  infant  daughter  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Diiring. 

It  was  but  the  third  day  of  the  voyage 
when  the  seeds  of  the  fatal  disease  which 
Johnson  must  have  carried  on  board  with 
him  began  to  manifest  their  fruits.  He  was 
prostrated  by  a  fever,  which  so  increased  in 
intensity  and  violence  that  two  days  later  he 
was  too  weak  even  to  turn  in  bed,  and  his 
general  symptoms  were  such  that,  anticipat- 
ing the  end  as  near  at  hand,  he  said  to  his 
weeping  attendant,  "  I  think  I  cannot  live." 
On  Saturday,  the  3d  of  May,  he  expressed  a 
deep  desire  to  see  his  wife  once  more,  and 
sought  to  calm  the  fears  of  Sarah  Bickersteth, 


204  SEI/EN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

who  could  not  calmly  contemplate  his  ap- 
proaching departure,  and  he  composedly  di- 
rected her  how  to  proceed  on  her  arrival  at 
London.  At  his  request  she  then  read  to 
him  the  same  Twenty-third  Psalm  which  to 
so  many  saints  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death  has  been  God's  staff  and  stay ;  and  then 
adding,  "  I  am  dying ;  pray  for  me,"  he  passed 
into  the  haven  where  he  desired  to  be.  Thus, 
with  a  strange,  poetic  propriety,  this  earliest 
convert  of  her  people  was  permitted  to  soothe 
by  her  simple,  sacred  ministries  the  last  hours 
of  this  pioneer  missionary  in  Sierra  Leone. 

Just  after  embarkation  the  tender  shepherd 
had  addressed  his  last  letter  to  his  little  flock, 
exhorting  them  to  continue  in  the  grace  of 
God.  And  his  last  intelligent  and  intelligible 
words  on  earth  were,  "I  cannot  live;  God 
calls  me,  and  this  night  I  shall  be  with  Him." 

The  tidings  of  his  death  reached  the  Church 
Missionary  House  in  July  following,  and  was 
the  saddest  intelligence  which  up  to  that  time 
bad  ever  reached  that  missionary  center.  The 
accounts  of  the  wonderful  work  which  for 
years  had  given  singular  occasion  for  joy  were 


AT  THE  DESIRED  HAFEN  205 

now  followed  by  one  awful  fact  of  bereave- 
ment, that  created  a  sorrow  correspondingly 
deep.  When  it  was  learned  that  this  apostolic 
missionary  had  departed  on  Sunday,  May 
4th,  about  one  week  after  sailing,  it  was  im- 
mediately felt  that  the  records  of  his  brief 
career  in  Africa  must  not  be  left  to  oblivion ; 
a  story  of  missions  so  instructive,  so  interest- 
ing, so  absorbing,  so  profitable,  must  be  made 
accessible  to  a  large  circle  of  readers ;  and  so 
steps  were  taken  to  prepare  a  memoir  of  his 
life  and  labors,  which  was  published  in  1852. 
A  letter  was  at  once  sent  by  the  secretaries 
at  London  to  the  native  teachers  at  Eegent's 
Town,  breathing  a  most  affectionate  and 
apostolic  spirit;  reminding  them  that  the 
hand  of  God  was  to  be  seen  in  their  affliction, 
and  that  in  removing  their  beloved  human 
instructor  He  was  teaching  them  to  trust  Him 
the  more,  humbling  and  proving  them  as  He 
had  done  with  Israel  of  old ;  and  the  hope  was 
expressed  that  the  death  of  their  missionary 
pastor  might  be  the  means  of  turning  to  God 
many  whom  his  preaching  and  life  had  failed 
to  convert. 


206  SEVEN    YE/iRS  IN  SIERRA   LEONE 

The  tidiugs  of  this  great  bereavement  found 
their  way  back  to  Sierra  Leone  in  the  early 
part  of  September.  Of  course  the  informa- 
tion spread  there  with  telegraphic  swiftness, 
for  both  grief  and  joy  have  their  own  quick 
signals  for  communication.  In  a  few  mo- 
ments all  Eegent's  Town  was  ablaze  with 
excitement,  and  the  mission  house  was  at 
once  crowded  with  weeping  inquirers.  Mr. 
Norman  found  it  very  difficult  to  assuage  or 
even  relieve  their  excessive  grief,  and  could 
only  beseech  them  to  testify  their  gratitude 
to  God  for  sparing  so  long  to  them  their  be- 
loved teacher,  by  bearing  with  meekness  and 
patience  the  trial  of  their  faith,  and  by  bring- 
ing forth  more  abundantly  in  their  lives  the 
fruits  of  the  gospel.  Advantage  was  taken  of 
the  softening  influence  of  grief  to  exhort  them 
to  remember  the  words  that  he  had  spoken 
unto  them  while  he  was  yet  with  them,  and 
to  attend  faithfully  to  the  instructions  with 
which  these  seven  years  had  been  so  laden. 
In  the  evening  a  more  formal  service  was 
held  in  the  crowded  church,  when  the  Scrip- 
ture lesson  for  the  day  proved  singularly 


AT  THE  DESIRED  HAVEN  207 

appropriate:  Jolin  viii.  12-19.  Mr.  Norman 
dwelt  particularly  on  the  twelfth  verse:  "I 
am  the  light  of  the  world :  he  that  f oUoweth 
Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have 
the  light  of  life ; "  and  one  of  the  favorite 
hymns  of  the  departed  pastor  and  teacher 
closed  the  impressive  service. 

Knowing  the  strength  of  African  emotions, 
Mr.  Norman  was  both  surprised  and  gratified 
at  the  admirably  controlled  behavior  of  this 
bereaved  community.  Their  grief  was  deep 
and  unmistakable,  yet  subdued  and  quiet, 
like  a  deep-flowing  river ;  and  when  the  ser- 
vice concluded,  all  moved  out  in  absolute 
silence,  restraining  not  only  words,  but  even 
sobs. 

To  supply  the  place  of  the  man  whom  God 
had  translated  to  a  higher  sphere  was  no  easy 
matter.  The  faith  of  the  committee  having 
the  mission  in  charge  was  tried  by  severe 
and  repeated  disappointments.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Norman  were  obliged  to  return  to  England  in 
January,  1824.  Eleven  months  passed  before 
any  resident  missionary  was  sent  to  Regent's 
Town ;  and  when  the  Eev.  H.  Brooks  landed, 


208  SEVEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

he  found  that  for  want  of  any  responsible  and 
capable  leader  the  public  works  had  been 
stopped,  the  population  had  diminished  to 
thirteen  hundred,  and  there  were  sad  signs  of 
the  need  of  a  man  of  capacity  and  sagacity  to 
take  charge  of  this  newly  gathered  church. 
But  he  also  found  that,  notwithstanding  two 
years  of  such  lack  of  proper  spiritual  guidance 
and  general  superintendence,  a  better  dressed 
or  better  behaved  congregation  no\dllage  even 
in  England  could  show. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Brooks  a  few  weeks  later 
again  left  Regent's  Town  without  a  minister. 
And  for  upward  of  twelve  years  this  mission 
suffered  from  a  strange  succession  of  disap- 
pointments and  calamities.  As  our  purpose 
has  been  mainly  to  trace  the  history  of  the 
seven  years  of  Johnson's  labors,  it  is  not 
needful  to  carry  this  narrative  further  into 
the  subsequent  years.  But  one  incontro- 
vertible fact  stands  out  as  bold  and  un- 
mistakable as  a  mountain-peak  against  the 
sky.  From  wild,  naked,  wretched  slaves  a 
church  and  congregation  had  been  gathered 
with  a  rapidity  so  astonishing,  with  a  success 


AT   THE  DESIRED  HAl^EN  209 

SO  incredible,  with  a  transformation  so  inde- 
scribable, that  it  could  be  traced  only  to  the 
God  that  worketh  wonders;  and  the  com- 
panion fact  that,  after  a  lapse  of  more  than 
twenty  years  of  seeming  disasters  and  dis- 
couragements, this  congregation  still  re- 
mained in  existence  and  had  not  relapsed 
into  heathenism,  but  maintained  its  separa- 
tion as  a  godly  community,  is  a  sufficient 
proof  of  the  reality  and  solidity  of  the  work 
which  had  been  thus  accomplished. 

In  putting  the  concluding  paragraphs  to 
this  story  of  seven  years  of  labor,  we  cannot 
forbear  to  observe  both  the  coincidences  and 
the  contrasts  that  history  presents.  God  raises 
up  men  to  do  His  bidding,  and  provides  for 
a  true  apostolic  succession  of  witnesses,  war- 
riors, workers.  At  the  same  time  in  different 
quarters  of  the  earth  men  appear,  whose 
words  shake  the  world,  and  whose  lives  make 
an  ineradicable  impress  on  the  race.  No 
human  forethought  could  have  provided  for 
the  simultaneous  or  coetaneous  appearance 
of  these  men  in  history ;  it  can  be  explained 
by  nothing  short  of  a  divine  Providence.   And 


210  SEyEN    YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

the  remarkable  adaptation  of  these  different 
men  to  their  spheres  is  a  confirmatory  proof 
that  a  divine  hand  molded  these  various 
vessels  upon  His  potter's  wheel  for  the  exact 
service,  in  His  great  house,  to  which  they  were 
ordained. 

Quite  as  impressive  as  these  coincidences  are 
the  contrasts  of  history.  Up  to  a  certain  point 
Luther  and  Loyola  bear  the  most  sm-prising 
resemblance ;  beyond  that  point  it  is  only  life- 
long contrast,  and  a  contrast  of  the  utmost 
significance.  Let  this  seven  years  of  William 
Johnson  at  Sierra  Leone  be  compared  with  the 
seven  years  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte  between 
the  capture  of  Madrid  in  December,  1808,  and 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  in  June,  1815.  Just 
as  Napoleon's  great  defeat  made  him  a  captive 
and  exile  at  St.  Helena,  Johnson's  career  was 
about  beginning  in  Africa.  Let  any  candid 
student  of  history  carefully  set  side  by  side 
the  campaigns  of  the  great  Corsican  and  the 
humble  evangelism  of  the  lowly  Moravian, 
and  say  which  will  best  bear  the^  searching 
eye  of  God,  or  even  the  fixed  gaze  of  wise 
and  good  men.   In  one  case  a  blaze  of  human 


AT  THE  DESIRED  HAVEhl  211 

glory,  going  out  in  disgrace  and  dishonor ;  in 
the  other  an  unpretending  career  of  service, 
unobserved  by  men,  but  accounted  of  God 
worthy  to  be  accompanied  by  signs  and  seals 
of  divine  power.  The  man  who  boasted  that 
he  could  "make  circumstances"  entered  in 
1812  on  his  Eussian  campaign,  and  actually 
concentrated  between  the  Vistula  and  the 
Niemen  an  army  of  half  a  million.  He  cap- 
tures Wilna,  ravages  Lithuania,  drives  before 
him  the  Russian  generals,  and  marches  di- 
rectly into  the  snares  of  famine  and  frost. 
God  is  not  on  the  side  of  his  heavy  battahons ; 
in  Lithuania  alone  one  hundred  thousand  of 
his  soldiers  drop  out  of  his  ranks.  He  finds 
Smolensk  evacuated  by  the  enemy,  but  oc- 
cupied by  flames.  At  Borodino,  after  bloody 
battle,  he  holds  the  field,  but  nothing  else.  A 
little  later  he  enters  Moscow,  but  five  weeks 
after  retreats  with  an  army  reduced  by  nearly 
four  fifths  of  its  original  number.  He  returns 
through  the  districts  he  had  wasted  in  his 
advance,  and  leaves  Smolensk  with  only 
forty  thousand  fighting  men,  and  crosses  the 
Beresina  with  only  twenty-five  thousand,  the 


212  SEyEN    YE/iRS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

spell  of  his  terrible  name  forever  broken,  and 
nothing  but  disaster  before  him. 

William  Johnson,  at  the  time  when  Napo- 
leon breathed  his  last  at  St.  Helena,  in  1821, 
had  been  for  only  five  years  at  work  in  Re- 
gent's Town.  Here  is  a  man  presenting,  at 
every  point,  a  most  marked  contrast  to  the 
great  Corsican, — a  man  of  no  wealth,  acquisi- 
tions, endowments,  social  standing,  or  educa- 
tion, without  one  element  of  human  greatness, 
as  men  reckon  greatness;  out  of  a  London 
workshop ;  having  never  been  in  college  and 
without  eloquence  or  learning ;  yet  he  is  used 
of  God  to  give  organized  form  to  a  chaotic  mass 
of  human  refuse,  to  civilize,  humanize,  and 
Christianize  men  and  women  who  are  little 
above  the  wild  hogs  that  infested  the  district. 
He  wins  them;  he  weans  them  from  their 
brutal,  bestial  vices ;  he  builds  out  of  them 
a  Christian  state ;  a  well-ordered  community 
grows  up,  with  its  streets  and  gardens,  church 
and  schools,  homes  and  farms,  a  model  of 
thrift,  order,  neatness,  and  industry.  We  find 
him  preaching  the  simple  news  of  salvation, 
and  soon  gathering  fifteen  hundred  to  two 


AT  THE  DESIRED  HAl^EN  213 

thousand  hearers  from  among  the  slaves  of  the 
colony,  educating  one  thousand  in  schools,  and 
admitting  four  hundred  to  sealing  ordinances. 
Here  is  found  within  two  years  a  flourishing 
church,  with  crowds  of  sinners  saved  by  grace 
and  seeking  to  save  others,  and  denying  them- 
selves to  send  the  gospel  to  the  darker  parts  of 
the  continent.  And  when  he  dies,  seven  years 
after  landing,  and  is  buried  at  sea,  every 
honest  and  honorable  craft,  and  even  the 
callings  which  demand  culture  and  education, 
are  represented  at  Regent's  Town.  Most 
wonderful  of  all,  while  the  brilliant  star  which 
rose  over  Europe  and  went  down  in  igno- 
minious night  deserves,  for  the  incarnation  of 
selfishness,  to  be  known  as  "Wormwood,"  this 
man's  whole  course  is  one  grand  exhibition  of 
the  one  unconscious  grace,  humility,  and  of 
the  one  celestial  virtue,  unselfish  love.  We 
can  find  not  a  trace  of  selfish  ambition,  ap- 
petite, avarice,  in  his  whole  labors,  even  when 
his  journals  and  private  letters  are  scrutinized 
with  a  critical  eye.  He  went  to  Africa,  not 
to  conquer  for  himself,  but  to  achieve  vic- 
tories for  his  Master.   And  while  the  church 


214  SEVEN   YEARS  IN  SIERRA  LEONE 

of  Christ  shall  read  the  stoiy  of  the  miracles 
of  missions,  loving  eyes  will  linger  in  wonder 
and  amazement  over  the  apostolic  history  of 
William  Johnson  and  his  Seven  Years  in 
Sierra  Leone.* 

*  Appendix  VII. 


APPENDICES 


As  tlie  original  "  Memoir  of  W.  A,  B.  Johnson," 
published  in  1852  in  London  and  in  1853  in  New 
York,  is  now  so  difficult  to  obtain,  it  seems  essential 
to  the  completeness  of  this  volume  that  it  should 
include  and  preserve  at  least  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant and  striking-  portions  of  the  contents  of 
the  former  narrative.  Hence  there  will  here  be 
found  seven  somewhat  copious  extracts  from  the 
pages  of  that  fuller  and  more  minute  account,  now 
no  longer  within  reach  of  most  readers.  Some  of 
these  excerpts  are  in  themselves  invaluable  both  as 
testimonies  to  the  work  and  as  revelations  of  Grod's 
gracious  power. 


APPENDIX  I 

We  extract  this  from  Johnson's  journal : 
"In  the  evening  a  young  man  came  to  me  and 
said :  '  Massa,  them  words  you  talk  last  night  strike 
me  too  much.  When  you  preach,  you  read  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  verses  of  the  forty-fourth 
Isaiah,  and  explain  them.  You  show  how  our 
country-people  stand.  Me  say,  "  Ah,  who  tell  massa 
aU  this?  He  never  been  in  my  country."  You 
215 


216  APPENDICES 

say,  "  Do  not  your  country-people  live  in  that  fash- 
ion ? "  I  say,  "  Yes,  that  true ;  (iod  knows  all 
things.  He  put  them  things  in  the  Bible."  Massa, 
I  so  sure  that  the  Bible  God's  Word,  for  man  can- 
not put  all  things  there,  because  he  no  see  it.  That 
time  I  live  in  my  country,  I  hve  with  a  man  that 
make  gree-gi"ee.  He  take  me  into  the  bush  and 
teach  me  to  make  gree-gree  too.  He  show  me  one 
tree.  He  say,  "That  gi-ee-gree  tree."  He  take 
country  ax  and  cut  some  of  that  tree.  He  make  a 
god,  and  he  take  the  leaves  and  that  what  was  left, 
and  give  me  to  carry  home.  When  we  came  home 
he  make  a  fire,  and  all  the  people  come  and  sit 
round  the  fire.  Then  they  cook  and  eat.  When 
they  done  eat,  the  man  take  the  leaves  of  the  gree- 
gree  tree  and  burn  tliem  in  the  fire,  and  then  all  the 
people  stand  round  the  fire  and  clap  their  hands 
and  cry,  "Aha,  aha !  "  Massa,  when  you  read  that 
verse,  t  can't  tell  you  what  I  feel.  You  then  begin 
to  talk  about  the  text  (twentieth  verse),  "  He  feed- 
eth  on  ashes ; "  and  I  was  struck  again,  for  when 
they  done  cry,  "  Aha,"  they  take  the  ashes  and  make 
medicine  ;  they  give  it  to  people  wlien  they  be  sick. 
You  been  see  some  gree-gree  which  looks  like  dirt ; 
that  is  the  same  ashes  they  carry  that  our  poor 
countrymen  feed  on  ashes.  For  true  the  Bible 
God's  Word.  Again  you  talk  about  the  twenty-first 
verse,  and  tell  us  to  remember  this,  and  look  back 
and  see  how  God  pull  us  like  brand  out  of  the  fire. 
Massa,  I  thank  God  for  the  Word  I  hear  last  night ; 
it  make  my  heart  sorry  for  my  country-people,  but 
it  make  my  heart  glad  when  T  see  what  God  done 
for  me.  But  me  so  wicked.  God  h)ve  me  so  much, 
and  still  my  heart  so  cold.  Massa,  one  thing  trouble 
me  too  much :  sometimes  you  talk  about  whore- 
mongers and  adulterers.  I  must  say  I  not  done 
that  sin  yet,  but  I  am  so  'fraid.  by  and  by  I  shall 


y4PP  EN  DICES  217 

do  that  sin.  Me  done  that  sin  plenty  times  with 
my  heart.  I  hope  the  Lord  Jesus  will  have  mercy 
upon  me  and  keep  me.  Another  thing  trouble  me ; 
I  don't  know  if  you  like  to  hear  it,  but  I  will  tell 
you.  My  heart  trouble  me  too  much  about  my 
country-people— me  so  much  want  to  be  a  teacher 
to  them.  I  wanted  to  tell  you  before,  but  me  so 
ashamed;  but  when  you  preach  last  night  about 
our  country-people,  I  think  I  must  tell  you.' " 


APPENDIX  II 

Of  the  letters  received  by  Mr.  Johnson  from 
some  of  the  converted  negroes  in  Sierra  Leone 
during  his  stay  in  England,  it  seems  proper  here  to 
give  one  or  two.  The  following  are  selected  from 
many: 

"  Eegent's  Town,  May  26,  1819. 

"My  dear  Father  in  Christ  Jesus :  I  have 
wi-itten  a  few  hues  to  you.  I  hope  you  are  well  in 
the  Lord,  and  youi-  wife.  I  hope  you  will  remember 
me  to  my  brethren  and  sisters,  though  I  do  not 
know  them ;  but  I  trust  one  day  or  other  we  shall 
meet  on  the  right  hand  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"When  I  think  about  the  office  to  which  our 
Lord  has  appointed  me,  I  fear.* 

"When  I  read  the  Bible  I  learn  that  God  said, 
'  Fear  thou  not ;  for  I  am  with  thee ; '  and,  '  If  ye 
have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  ye  shall  say 
unto  tliis  mountain,  Remove  hence  to  yonder  place  ; 
and  it  shall  remove :  and  nothing  shall  be  impos- 
sible unto  you.'  And  when  I  read  in  New  Testa- 
*  The  writer  was  a  native  assistant  in  one  of  the  schools. 


218  APPENDICES 

ment,  I  find  Jesus  said,  '  He  that  believeth  on  Me 
hath  everlasting  life.'  '  I  am  the  bread  of  life.'  This 
is  my  hope.  But  I  fear  again,  because  the  Lord 
said,  '  Repent,  or  else  I  will  come  unto  thee  quickly, 
and  will  fight  against  thee  with  the  sword  of  My 
mouth.'     This  is  my  trouble. 

"  Remember  me  to  all  my  brethren  and  sisters ; 
let  them  pray  for  me,  that  the  Lord  may  give  me 
faith  to  beUeve  in  Him.  I  do  not  fear  what  man 
can  do  to  me,  for  the  Lord  is  my  shield  and  my 
hope. 

"  Pray  for  me !  pray  for  me !  for  I  stand  in 
need.  May  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be 
with  you  and  all  His  cliildren.     Amen." 

Another  writes  : 

"I  take  this  opportunity  of  Avritiug  these  few 
lines  unto  you,  my  dear  brother,  and  I  hope  God 
may  presei've  and  keep  you  when  you  pass  through 
the  mighty  deep ;  and,  by  the  will  of  God,  I  hope 
we  may  see  one  another  again.  I  remember  you 
day  by  day,  and  I  ask  you  how  you  feel  in  your 
heart,  my  dear  brother.  I  hope  you  may  be  well 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Cliiist— you  and  Mrs.  Johnson ; 
and  I  pray  unto  God  that  He  may  keep  you  till 
you  come  to  Africa  again,  that  we  may  see  one 
another. 

**I  thank  almighty  God  for  his  loving-kindness 
to  me.  I  know  the  Lord  is  my  Sa\aour  and  my 
God.  I  pray  for  all  the  good  people  who  are  in 
England,  and  the  secretary.  I  hope  you  may  be 
well  in  Jesus,  and  that  you  may  send  more  mission- 
aries to  Africa  to  preach  the  gospel  to  our  poor 
countrymen.  My  master,  please  to  send  me  one 
hymn-book.  My  wife  ask  you,  how  you  do,  Mrs. 
Johnson  ? " 

The  writer  of  one  of  these  letters  gives  the  fol- 


APPENDICES  219 

lowing  affecting  account  of  the  state  of  the  colony 
during  the  few  months  preceding.  The  feehngs 
of  the  Christian  natives  under  their  bereavements 
afford  a  fair  indication  of  the  value  of  the  mission. 

"I  stayed  at  Charlotte  Town  when  Mr.  Taylor 
was  sick,  and  I  speak  to  the  people  the  Word  of 
God.  One  time  we  meet  together  for  missionary 
prayer-meeting.  Oh,  that  time  many  white  people 
sick,  and  many  of  them  die  ! 

"  And  that  time  we  lose  one  of  our  sisters,  Mary 
Moddy;  she  was  brought  to  bed,  and  the  child 
died,  and  herself  caught  cold.  And  I  went  to  see 
her,  and  I  asked  her,  'How  you  do?'  She  said, 
'I  fear  too  much.'  I  asked  her,  'What  you  fear 
for  ? '  And  she  said,  '  I  done  sin.'  And  I  said, 
'Pray  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  He  only  can  do 
you  good.'  And  I  prayed  with  her,  and  the  next 
day  I  went  again,  and  I  say  unto  her,  'How  do 
you  feel  in  your  heart  ? '  And  she  said,  '  Oh,  my 
heart  too  wicked  ! '  And  I  said,  '  Do  you  pray  to 
Jesus  Christ  ? '  She  said,  '  Yes ;  to  whom  should  I 
pray,  if  I  not  pray  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  1 '  And 
I  talked  with  her  a  good  while,  and  then  I  prayed 
with  her  and  went  away.  The  next  day  I  went 
again,  and  she  could  hardly  speak.  I  prayed  with 
her,  and  stop  with  her,  and  by  and  by  she  died. 

"  That  time  Mr.  Cates  sick,  and  Mr.  Morgan  sick, 
and  poor  Mr.  Cates  die.  I  think  the  journey  to  the 
Bassa  country  which  he  take,  that  too  much  for  him, 
the  land  so  long  to  walk  and  the  sun  so  hot.  Yet 
I  cannot  prove  that ;  but  I  think  his  work  was  done 
and  his  time  up.  When  he  was  sick  I  went  to  see 
him.  'How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Cates?'  And  he  said, 
'  I  shall  certainly  die.'  And  by  and  by  he  got  down 
to  Freetown,  and  he  sink  very  much— all  his 
strength  gone ;  but  he  was  a  man  of  faith,  and  he 
die  on  Friday  about  five  o'clock.    And  on  Satur- 


220  APPENDICES 

day  we  go  to  bury  him  four  o'clock,  and  we  look 
upon  him ;  and  then  we  went  to  Mr.  Jesty's  house, 
and  Mr.  Jesty  tell  us,  and  say,  he  think  God  would 
leave  this  place,  because  white  people  die  fast ;  and 
when  I  hear  that  I  fear  too  much,  and  I  consider 
many  things  in  my  mind ;  and  I  think  hypocrites 
live  among  us,  and  God  want  to  punish  us;  but  I 
trust  again  in  the  Lord ;  He  knows  His  people,  He 
never  forsake  them.  Then  Mr.  CoUier  get  sick, 
and  Mr.  Morgan  get  sick  again ;  and  our  friend 
said,  *  God  soon  leave  this  place.'  And  I  said,  '  I 
trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  He  knows  His 
people,  and  He  never  left  them,  neither  forsake 
them.'  And  next  Sunday  Mr.  Collier  die  about 
eleven  o'clock.  Then  Mr.  Morgan  sick,  Mrs.  Mor- 
gan sick,  Mr.  Bull  sick  !  Oh,  that  time  all  mission- 
aries sick !  We  went  to  Freetown  Monday,  bury 
Mr.  Collier,  and  we  come  home  again  and  keep 
service  in  the  church.  Oh,  that  time  trouble  too 
much  in  my  heart !  Nobody  to  teach  me,  and  I 
was  sorry  for  my  poor  country-people.  Mr.  Cates 
died,  ]Mr.  Collier  died,  Mr.  Morgan  sick  !  Oh,  what 
must  I  do  for  my  countrymen  ?  But  I  trust  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  He  know  what  to  do;  and  I 
went  to  pray,  and  I  say,  *  O  Lord,  take  not  all  the 
teachers  away  from  us.' " 


APPENDIX  III 

MR.  THORIAS  MORGAN  TO  THE  SECRETARY 

"...  I  HAD  in  England  read,  heard,  and  thought 
much  on  the  African  character,  or  rather  given  in 
to  some  prejudices  against  the  mental  endowments 


APPENDICES  221 

of  the  negroes,  and  leaning  rather  still  to  the  side 
of  iincharitableness.  On  my  arrival  I  resolved  to 
study,  as  much  as  possible,  a  particular  acquain- 
tance with  their  private  thoughts ;  and  I  now  find, 
from  summing  up  the  various  occurrences  which  I 
have  myself  witnessed,  you  have  reason  to  adore 
God  for  suffering  you  to  open  a  door  through 
which  the  light  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness  is  now 
spreading  its  influence  over  the  whole  country  of 
Ethiopia. 

"No  blame  can  attach  itself  to  any  missionary 
or  superintendent  for  not  becoming  acquainted 
wdth  every  occurrence  which  happens  among  the 
negroes  entrusted  to  their  care.  Their  labors,  were 
they  to  do  nothing  more  than  absolute  duty,  and 
what  the  w^orld,  indifferent  to  the  people's  eternal 
interests,  would  expect,  are  truly  great,  difficult, 
and  arduous ;  and  if,  with  your  departed  servant,* 
I  visited  the  members  of  each  family  separately,  it 
was  to  gratify  my  own  inclination,  and  to  try  the 
ground  of  those  faults  so  often  assigned  to  profess- 
ing Christian  negroes.  Faults  and  crimes  were 
found,  and  many  were  great ;  but  none  surpassed, 
nor  did  they  equal,  the  state  of  the  towns  of  the 
same  size,  and  which  for  centui-ies  have  heard  and 
read  the  gospel,  in  England.  This  is  a  proof  that 
African  towns  (I  speak  especially  of  Regent's  Town) 
are  superior  to  the  towns  of  England  in  moral  and 
religious  conduct ;  and  if  we  take  into  view  the 
short  period  since  civilization  began  here,  we  may 
say  it  is  a  light  to  the  people  of  Britain.  They 
who  in  Africa  have  sat  in  darkness  have  seen  a 
great  light,  and  it  hath  shined  into  their  hearts. 

"  I  have  mentioned  in  former  letters  the  ultimate 
success  which  attended  my  exertions  in  Freetown 
schools.     I  have  seen  there  Dr.  Bell's  remark  veri- 
*  Mr.  Gates. 


222  APPENDICES 

fied.  A  child  of  any  ability  may  with  facility  pro- 
ceed from  readinj]^  the  alpluibet  to  the  readino:  of 
the  Bible  in  four  months.  This  leads  me  to  offer 
a  remark  on  the  abihty  of  the  negroes.  If  I  can 
recollect  my  own  at  an  early  period  of  life,  theirs 
is  as  far  superior  as  one  child  need  wish  to  be  to 
another.  A  strong  barrier  this  for  those  to  con- 
quer who  think  them  only  lit  to  labor  for  the  grati- 
fication of  their  owners.  I  wish  e\'ery  heart  which 
undervalues  the  character  of  these  poor  heathen 
could  have  visited  them  Avitli  me,  have  seen  their 
labors  of  love  and  imitated  their  zeal  for  religion. 

"  Soon  after  my  arrival  at  Regent's  Town,  Mrs. 
Morgan  and  myself  were  both  seized  with  the  fev^er, 
in  which  we  Avere  tenderly  and  unceasingly  watched 
by  the  children  around  us.  As  I  often  suffered 
much  in  my  head,  and,  T  Ix'lieve,  frequently  mani- 
fested it  by  contortion  of  countenance,  a  boy,  who 
had  attached  hims(df  to  nu^  from  his  lirst  entering 
the  colony,  and  Avhom  I  kept  constantly  about  me, 
sat  for  several  hours  in  the  night  holding  my  head 
and  bathing  it  with  vinegnr,  ami,  when  I  dropped 
asleep,  covering  it  fi-om  cold  or  wiping  away  the 
drops  of  ])erspiration.  No  aflt'cctiou,  I  think,  in  a 
Christian  land  would  surj^ass  this. 

"One  morning  iu  the  month  of  June,  and  dur- 
ing Mrs.  IMorgan's  indisposition,  Brother  Cates  and 
myself  being  engaged,  as  was  our  custom  at  break- 
fast, in  reading  Milner's  '  Church  History,'  we  were 
alarmed  by  feeble  cries  of  '  Massa,  massa,  fire  live 
here  ! '  I  went  immediately  to  the  adjoining  room, 
and  found  the  flames  issuing  through  the  crevices 
of  the  floor.  Brother  Cates  followed,  and  with  his 
usual  self-poss«^ssion  and  calmness  said,  '  We  will 
remove  this  child'  (who  was  lying'sick  in  the  room) 
'and  Mrs.  Morgan;  and  God  will  assist  us  to  get 
the  fire  under.'     This  we  accordingly  did,  and  by 


APPENDICES  223 

the  application  of  wet  blankets  soon  confined  and 
at  last  extinguished  tlie  fire. 

"  We  were  much  struck  with  the  integrity  of  tlie 
people.  In  their  anxiety  to  save  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, almost  every  article  was  removed.  In  the 
confusion  many  things  were  scattered  about  tlie 
yard ;  not  one  article,  however,  even  the  most 
triiiing",  was  lost,  but  all  were  brought  again  to  the 
house  and  fixed  in  their  proper  places.  A  boy  who 
had  got  possession  of  the  box  which  (contained  the 
money  for  pjiying  the  mechanics  and  laborca-s  was 
found  in  tlu;  garden,  parading  with  the  box  undcj- 
his  arm,  and  guarding  it,  though  unnecessarily, 
with  a  drawn  eutlass  in  liis  hand. 

"I  was  struck,  during  a  lire  which  broke  out  in 
our  house,  with  the  sudden  disi4)})t!arance  of  the 
women,  who  at  the  comnu^ucement  almost  filled  the 
house.  On  inquiry  I  found  that  they  had  retired 
to  the  church  to  offer  up  their  prayers  unto  God. 
What  but  a  divine  influence  could  draw  them  to 
God  in  this  trial,  to  ask  His  blessing  on  the  exer- 
tions of  those  employed? 

"  While  we  were  replacing  the  books  which  had 
been  scattered  on  this  occasion,  two  of  the  girls 
came  to  us.  I  .isked  what  was  wanted.  'Nothing, 
massa,'  was  the  reply;  'but  we  come  tell  you  (lod 
hear  every  time  sonuibody  go  talk  Ilim.'  'How, 
my  child,'  said  I,  'do  you  know  that  God  hears  His 
people  when  they  pray?'  Slie  said,  'Massa,  when 
fire  come  this  morning  I  sab])y  your  house  no  burn 
too  much.  Every  morning  I  hear  you  and  Mr. 
Gates,  and  you  pray  God  keep  this  house  and  all 
them  girls  and  boys  what  live  here ;  and  when  fire 
come  I  say  to  Sarah,  "Ah!  God  plenty  good;  He 
heard  what  massa  say  to  Him  this  mor-ning;  He  no 
hit  this  house  burn  too  much."'  What  a  reproof 
did  I  feel  this !     I  knew  how  often  my  heart  was 


224  APPENDICES 

indifferent  while  I  asked  for  these  mercies ;  and  I 
trust  it  made  me  more  anxious  to  urge  the  duty 
of  family  prayer  on  others  more  earnestly.  Soon 
after  the  same  gii-ls  mentioned  theii'  desire  for  one 
of  the  elder  girls  to  pray  with  the  school-children 
before  they  went  to  bed  and  when  they  rose  in  the 
morning. 

"  Scarcely  an  event  occurs  but  what  they  notice 
as  springing  from  the  overruling  providence  of 
God.  Taught  of  God,  they  mark  the  painful  events 
of  His  providence,  as  children  would  mark  the  deal- 
ings of  a  father.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Gates  I 
have  frequently  heard  their  expressions  of  sorrow 
for  sin,  and  acknowledgments  of  God's  justice  in 
punishing  them.  They  have  used  such  language 
as  this:  'We  have  done  something  very  bad— God 
is  very  angry ;  He  is  removing  all  our  teachers ; 
by  and  by  nobody  will  be  left  to  tell  us  good.  We 
must  pray,  dear  brothers  and  sisters ;  we  must  look 
into  our  own  hearts ;  some  bad  live  there.'  Similar 
occurrences  in  England  would  have  passed,  perhaps, 
unheeded  by  the  greater  part  of  professing  Chris- 
tians. 

"  How  many  candlesticks  spreading  around  them 
the  light  of  truth,  and  reflecting  the  rays  of  Him 
who  fed  their  luster  by  His  own  incomprehensible 
glory,  are  removed  from  the  congregation  where 
Jesus  had  planted  them,  without  giving  rise  to  the 
thought,  '  God  is  angry  with  us  for  sin ' !  What 
has  not  our  God  permitted  your  society  to  do  al- 
ready ?  What  a  call  to  go  forward  and  increase  in 
the  work ! 

"  No  day  passed,  when  I  was  capable  of  taking 
exercise,  without  my  entering  some  of  the  huts 
around  us.  Visiting  unexpectedly,  as  I  often  did, 
the  families  of  all  classes  of  the  communicants,  I 
could  not  be  deceived  as  to  their  actual  condition. 


APPENDICES  225 

"  I  have  found  many  commendably  employed  in 
agriculture.  I  believe  the  society  is  apt  to  conceive 
that  a  cultivated  farm  or  garden  in  Africa  must  re- 
semble the  same  thing  in  England,  which  it  does 
not.  I  have  often  myself  drawn  too  strong  a  line 
of  comparison  between  the  two.  Agriculture  is, 
among  many,  especially  those  on  whose  hearts  we 
trust  the  dew  of  God's  grace  is  continually  de- 
scending, flourishing. 

"Many  of  the  gardens  are  kept  in  very  neat 
order,  though  most  of  the  owners  have  but  little 
leism-e  to  devote  to  this  employment.  I  have  fre- 
quently known  the  whole  of  the  time  allowed  for 
dinner  spent  by  both  husband  and  wife  in  fencing, 
digging,  or  planting  the  little  spot  of  ground  at- 
tached to  each  dwelling. 

"  Decency  and  cleanliness  manifest  the  diligence 
of  those  who  live  under  the  power  of  religion.  Their 
time  is,  indeed,  so  well  occupied  that  in  cases  where 
they  can  read  they  may  be  frequently  seen  at  leisure 
moments  with  some  friends  around  them  searching 
the  Word  of  life ;  and  these  little  respites  from  labor 
are  often  made  a  blessing  to  the  whole  town,  as  the 
sick,  the  careless,  the  backsliding,  and  the  profane 
are  not  seldom  visited,  instructed,  warned,  com- 
forted, and  relieved  at  these  seasons  by  their  zeal- 
ous brethren. 

"  The  Christian  negroes  show  a  strong  attachment 
to  the  simplest  views  of  religion.  I  began  some 
explanation  as  plain  as  possible,  in  successive  even- 
ings, of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  pleased  God  gi*a- 
ciously  to  bless  these  words  to  the  people.  They 
made  the  most  practical  use  of  them.  A  display  of 
an  unholy  temper  woidd  receiA^e  a  reproof :  '  If  God 
your  Father,  that  be  no  like  His  child.'  Some  said 
that  they  needed  indeed  such  a  Father ;  others,  such 
daily  bread.   Some  thought  God  could  not  be  their 


226  APPENDICES 

Father,  because  they  did  not  feel  sufficient  desires 
that  His  kingdom  should  come  among  their  coun- 
try-people ;  and  others  felt  that  they  were  rebellious 
children  for  not  doing  His  will  on  earth  more  as  it 
was  done  in  heaven.  Some  wept  to  think  how  He 
delivered  them  from  temptation  and  evil ;  and  all, 
I  believe,  burned  "with  love  to  ascribe  to  him  the 
kingdom  of  His  love,  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  and 
the  glory  of  their  salvation . 

"  I  was  obliged,  by  the  pressing  requests  of  the 
people,  to  repeat  these  explanations  four  or  five 
times,  and  resolved  in  future  to  know  nothing  and 
to  speak  of  nothing  among  the  negroes  but  the  plain- 
est words  of  the  Redeemer.  How  much  better  cal- 
culated His  language  is  than  any  other  to  reach  the 
heart  may  be  judged  of  by  this  instance  out  of  many. 

"  How  much  may  be  gained  by  the  simplicity,  or 
rather  sublimity,  of  the  gospel,  I  never  knew  before. 
The  work  in  which  the  missionary  engages  must 
be  the  work  of  Jesus,  for  He  suits  and  opens  every 
capacity  to  receive  heavenly  manna. 

"  But  there  was  another  reason  which  tended  to 
render  this  subject  useful.  I  had  it  frequently  read 
before  I  spoke  on  it,  which  proves  how  rapidly, 
under  God's  blessing,  the  knowledge  of  the  gospel 
must  increase  if  the  soil  wherein  the  grain  is  cast 
were  more  cultivated  and  maniu'ed  by  acquaintance 
with  the  Bible.  Difficulties,  I  know,  are  great,  and 
the  man  who  goes  as  a  schoolmaster  to  labor  among 
the  heathen  must  expect  many  trials  on  earth. 
However  the  comprehension  of  the  minds  of  the 
Africans  may  be  ridiculed,  I  have  found  them, 
though  needing  cultivation,  far  from  barren.  The 
finer  feelings  of  the  soul  in  the  attachment  of  these 
people  to  their  instructors,  families,  and  friends  are 
equal  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  princes  of 
Europe. 


APPENDICES  227 

"  How  eminently  the  gospel  shines  in  the  conduct 
of  the  people,  and  how  strikingly  its  influence  is 
manifested,  no  one  can  possibly  conjecture  but 
those  who  have  been  eye-witnesses.  I  have  fre- 
quently experienced  myself,  and  seen  experienced 
by  different  superintendents,  the  most  docile  and 
tractable  dispositions. 

"  On  the  disbanding  of  the  West  India  regiments 
sent  to  the  colony  for  that  purpose,  a  natural  degree 
of  affectionate  feeling  was  excited  in  the  breasts  of 
the  negroes  to  see  them.  These  regiments  had  been 
several  years  before  formed  of  liberated  negroes, 
and  many  of  the  people  were  expecting  to  find 
parents,  brothers,  and  friends  among  them.  The 
feelings  of  glowing  hope  were  strongly  dehneated 
in  almost  every  countenance.  When  in  the  evening 
intelligence  arrived  that  on  the  following  morning 
the  troops  would  be  permitted  to  land,  after  evening 
prayer  it  became  a  matter  of  general  conversation. 
Some  were  looking  forward  with  hope,  while  their 
joy  cast  a  cloud  over  the  faces  of  others,  whose 
friends  had  been  murdered  in  different  skii-mishes 
when  they  themselves  were  enslaved.  In  the  morn- 
ing, at  prayer,  the  church  was  particularly  full,  and 
a  few  words  were  spoken  on  the  danger  to  which 
a  Christian  was  exposed  when  running  into  temp- 
tation, and  some  desire  intimated  that  none  would 
visit  Freetown  that  day.  I  gave  this  intimation 
against  my  own  feelings ;  for  I  thought  their  wishes 
laudable,  though  I  feared  the  consequences  which 
might  arise  from  gratifying  them.  In  the  course 
of  an  hour  after,  an  old  and  faithful  Christian  came 
to  tell  me  that  his  brother  was  come  among  the 
soldiers.  'Well,'  said  I,  'and  do  you  wish  to  see 
him  ? '  '  Yes,  massa,  I  want  to  look  him,  but  I  no 
want  to  go  to-day.'  'Well,'  I  replied,  'I  want  to 
send  to  Freetown  j  if  you  can  find  another  commu- 


228  APPENDICES 

nicant  who  wishes  to  go  and  see  the  soldiers,  I  will 
send  you  down.'  After  a  search  of  near  two  hours 
he  returned  with :  *  Well,  massa,  me  no  find  one 
tliat  want  to  go;  all  them  x)eople  what  belong  to 
church  think  'tis  no  good  for  them  to  run  where 
(iod  say  temptation  live.'  Two  days  elapsed  before 
this  poor  fellow,  whose  heart  was  full  of  affection 
to  his  brother,  went  to  Freetown  to  see  him.  I 
singled  him  out  as  a  fit  object  of  reward ;  and  hav- 
ing mentioned  the  subject  to  the  governor,  that 
father  of  the  liberated  negroes,  anticipating  my 
request,  promised,  and  kept  his  promise,  that  the 
l)r()tliers  should  have  the  privilege  of  hving  together. 

"  I  know  of  many  similar  instances,  but  this  one 
struck  me  much.  I  thought  it  an  example  worthy 
of  imitation,  and  was  fully  convinced  that  w^hile  I 
had  known  the  gospel  longer  I  had  obeyed  it  less. 

"  You  must  think  that,  more  than  according  to 
the  labors  of  the  societ}^,  God  has  blessed.  The 
church  has  much  reason  to  take  up  David's  ex- 
clamation, and  say, '  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and 
forget  not  all  His  benefits.'  There  are,  as  must  be 
expected,  many  errors  in  large  towns,  but  the  good 
which  has  been  done  in  Africa  neither  we  nor  the 
generations  to  come  will  be  able  to  fathom.  Per- 
haps never  one  of  your  servants  ever  noticed  the 
field  of  your  labors  with  more  impartial  views  than 
did  my  dear  Brother  Gates  and  myself ;  and  it  was 
not  till  I  had  left  that  field  that  I  suffered  my  mind 
to  form  a  sentiment  on  the  subject." 


APPENDIX  IV 

Op  a  Sunday  spent  at  Regent's  Town,  Mr.  Jesty, 
after  speaking  of  an  early  mooting  in  the  church, 
at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  thus  writes : 


APPENDICES  229 

"  At  ten  o'clock  I  saw  a  sight  which  at  once  as- 
tonished and  delighted  me.  The  bell  at  the  church 
rung  for  divine  service,  on  which  Mr.  Johnson's 
well-regulated  schools  of  boys  and  girls  walked,  two 
and  two,  to  the  church— the  girls  extremely  clean, 
and  dressed  entirely  in  white,  in  striking  contrast 
with  which  were  their  black  arms  and  faces;  the 
boys,  equally  clean,  were  dressed  in  white  trousers 
and  scarlet  jackets.  The  clothing  of  both  boys  and 
girls  is  suppKed  by  government. 

"  The  eagerness  of  the  inhabitants  to  hear  the 
Word  will  appear  from  their  early  attendance  on 
the  means  of  grace.  It  is  true,  there  is  a  bell  in  the 
steeple  of  the  church,  but  it  is  of  little  use  at  Re- 
gent's Town,  for  the  church  is  generally  filled  half 
an  hour  before  the  bell  tolls.  The  greatest  atten- 
tion is  paid  during  the  service.  Indeed,  I  witnessed 
a  Christian  congregation  in  a  heathen  laud— a 
people  'fearing  God  and  working  righteousness.' 
The  tear  of  godly  sorrow  rolled  down  many  a 
colored  cheek,  and  showed  the  contrition  of  a  heart 
that  felt  its  own  vileness. 

"At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  there  was 
again  a  very  fidl  attendance,  so  that  scarce  an  in- 
dividual was  to  be  seen  throughout  the  town,  so 
eager  are  they  to  hear  the  Word,  and  to  feed  on 
that  'living  bread  that  came  down  from  heaven.' 
The  ser\'ice  was  over  about  haK-past  four  o'clock. 

"  At  six  we  met  again ;  and  although  many  had 
to  come  from  a  considerable  distance,  and  up  a 
tremendous  hill,  I  did  not  perceive  any  decrease  of 
number,  or  any  weariness  in  their  frequent  atten- 
dance on  the  means  of  grace. 

<'  We  left  the  church  about  eight  o'clock,  and  re- 
turned to  Mr.  Johnson's  house,  which  is  close  by 
the  church.  While  at  supper  I  heard  singing,  and 
on  walking  into  the  piazza  found  that  about  twenty 
of  the  school-girls  were  assembled  under  it.    One 


230  APPENDICES 

of  the  elder  girls  gave  out  the  hymn  in  an  impres- 
sive manner,  while  a  younger  girl  held  a  lamp. 
After  we  had  supped,  the  girls,  in  a  very  respectful 
and  humble  way,  sent  up  to  Mr.  Johnson  to  know 
if  he  would  allow  them  to  come  upstairs  into  his 
sitting-room,  to  sing  a  parting  hymn.  On  their 
entering  the  room  Mr.  Johnson  gave  out  a  hymn, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  I  think  we  had  at  least  one 
hundred  and  twenty  boys  and  gii'ls  in  the  room  and 
piazza.  They  sang  three  hymns ;  and  after  a  few 
suitable  words  from  Mr.  Johnson  they  departed, 
pleased  with  the  favor  granted  them. 

"Thus  was  the  last  Sabbath  spent  in  Regent's 
Town.  Never  did  I  pass  such  a  day  in  my  dear 
native  country.  Never  did  I  witness  such  a  con- 
gregation in  a  professing  Christian  land,  nor  ever 
beheld  such  apparent  sincerity  and  brotherly  love." 

Of  the  monthly  meeting,  held  on  the  following 
evening,  Mr.  Jesty  thus  wi*ites : 

"  Mr.  Johnson  and  myself  entered  the  names  of 
subscribers  and  received  their  mites ;  and  I  cannot 
but  notice  that,  in  one  minute  after  Mr.  Johnson 
and  myself  were  ready  to  receive  the  money  and 
names,  we  were  surrounded  by  several  hundreds  of 
humble  friends  to  missionary  exertions,  crying,  as 
it  were  with  one  voice,  '  Massa,  take  my  money ! ' 
'  Massa,  massa,  take  mine  ! '  <  Eight  coppers  one 
moon.'  It  was  indeed  a  pleasing  sight  to  behold  a 
people— once  led  captive  at  the  will  of  Satan,  de- 
voted to  gross  superstition  and  folly,  embracing 
their  gree-grees  and  trusting  in  them  for  defense, 
nud  once  expending  all  the  money  that  they  could 
spare  in  the  purchase  of  these  false  gods— now  con- 
quered by  the  love  and  power  of  Him  that  taketh 
away"  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  with  cheerful  and 
renewed  hearts  giving  of  tlieir  little  substance  to 
aid  those  means  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  will 


APPENDICES  231 

communicate  the  privileges  of  the  gospel  to  their 
countrymen  also. 

"  From  these  few  poor  and  once  injured  and  de- 
spised Africans  we  collected  that  evening  about 
£2.  7s.  O  my  countrymen,  fellow-Christians  in 
highly  favored  Enghmd,  you  wlio  liave  multiplied 
and  daily  renewed  comforts  and  blessings,  '  go  and 
do  likewise ' !  " 

Of  the  manner  of  closing  this  day  Mr.  Jesty  says : 

"  After  we  left  the  church  the  children  of  the  two 
schools  retired  to  their  school-houses,  and  the  rest 
of  the  congregation  to  their  respective  homes. 

''  But  that  faith  which  cometh  from  above  and 
worketh  by  love  has  taken  such  possession  of  the 
hearts  of  this  people,  that  they  delight  to  be  con- 
tinually 'speaking  one  to  another  in  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  and  to  sing  with  grace 
in  their  hearts  to  the  Lord.' 

''  The  school-houses  are  situated  behind  Mr.  John- 
son's, on  a  higher  part  of  the  hiU.  The  school-girls 
assembled  in  a  row  before  tlieir  school-house,  with 
three  or  four  lamps  dispersed  through  the  line. 
Their  eldest  teacher  gave  out  the  hymn,  and  they 
were  singing  deUghtf ully : 

'  How  beauteous  are  their  feet, 
Who  stand  on  Zion's  hill ! ' 

While  the  girls  were  singing  this  hymn  the  boys 
had  climbed  a  little  higher  up  the  hiU,  when  one  of 
their  teachers  gave  out  the  hymn : 

'  Come,  ye  sinners,  poor  and  wretched  ! ' 

''  It  was  a  beautiful  moonlight  night,  so  that  the 
children  could  be  seen  from  all  parts  of  the  town, 
while  the  lofty  mountains  resounded  with  the  echo 
of  their  voices.   I  was  walking  up  and  down  in  the 


232  APPENDICES 

piazza  listening  to  them,  and  anticipating  the  time 
when  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  the  Redeemer 
and  all  nations  shall  serve  Him,  when  I  saw  at  the 
foot  of  the  hill  some  men  and  women  coming  to- 
ward the  childi-en.  The  men  joined  the  boys,  and 
the  women  joined  the  girls. 

"  The  boys  and  girls  had  now  snng  several  hymns, 
and  after  a  few  minutes'  cessation  began  again.  I 
was  thinking  of  our  Christian  friends  in  England, 
and  said  to  Mr.  Johnson,  '  Could  all  the  friends  of 
missionary  exertions  but  witness  this  scene,  they 
would  be  more  and  more  zealous  for  the  universal 
diffusion  of  the  gospel  of  a  crucified  Saviour,'— when 
I  looked  around  me  and  saw  numbers  of  the  inhabi- 
tants, men  and  women,  coming  in  every  direction. 
They  joined  respectively  the  boys  and  girls,  and 
sang  for  some  time,  when  the  boys  and  girls  retired 
to  their  school-houses,  and  the  men  and  women  re- 
tired to  their  homes  in  peace. 

*'  This  is  a  great  work,  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our 
eyes;  but  it  is  the  Lord,  and  to  Him  be  all  the 
glory ! " 

Mr.  Jesty  adds : 

"We  rose  next  morning  between  five  and  six 
o'clock,  and  attended  morning  prayer  at  the  church. 
After  the  service  was  over  a  few  more  came  for- 
ward, and  begged  us  to  take  their  coppers  to  aid 
the  cause  of  missions.  We  collected  on  this  occa- 
sion upward  of  fifteen  shilUngs,  which,  with  the 
collection  made  the  evening  before,  amounted  to 
more  than  three  pounds.  Mr.  Johnson  has  a  mis- 
sionary meeting  and  sermon  once  a  month,  on 
which  occasions  he  generally  collects  three  pounds. 
Do  not  these  poor  people  hold  forth  a  bright  ex- 
ample to  all  Christians  ? 

"  I  have  now  given  you  a  faithful  and  imperfect 
picture  of  the  state  of  Regent's  Town.     The  Lord 


APPENDICES  233 

has  certainly  blessed,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  the 
labors  of  Mr.  Johnson.  The  people  love  him  as 
their  father,  and  reverence  him  as  theii*  spiritual 
g-uide.  Should  a  dispute  arise  among  any  of  them, 
they  come  to  him  to  settle  their  palaver,  and  they 
abide  by  his  decision.  He  seems  in  every  respect 
suited  for  these  people— unwearied  in  his  exertions, 
and  an  excellent  example  to  all  his  brethren." 
Mrs.  Jesty  thus  concludes  her  letter  to  her  sister : 
"The  love  which  these  people  manifest  among 
themselves,  and  toward  their  minister  and  all  faith- 
ful missionaries,  their  anxiety  and  the  fervency  of 
their  prayers  that  the  gospel  may  be  made  known 
through  all  nations— these  things  are  worthy  the 
admiration  of  all  Christians.  It  may  almost  be  said 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Regent's  Town  that  they 
'  dwell  in  love,'  and  that  they  hve  a  life  of  prayer 
and  praise  to  Him  'who  loved  them,  and  gave 
Himself  for  them ' ;  for  besides  their  meetings  for 
prayer  every  morning  and  evening,  the  hearts  of 
many  of  them  seem  to  be  full  of  the  love  of  Christ 
the  whole  day ;  and  when  '  they  are  merry  they  sing 
psalms ' ;  such  vocal  music  resounds  from  all  parts 
of  the  town.  A  dispute  is  seldom  known  among 
them.  They  have  every  one  of  them  cast  off  his 
gree-gree,  and  nearly  all  of  them  are  become  wor- 
shipers of  the  blessed  Jesus.  A  few  years  since 
none  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  place  had  ever  heard 
the  name  of  Jesus ;  they  went  about  naked,  and 
were  in  every  respect  like  the  savage  tribes;  but 
now — oh,  what  a  happy  change!— they  are  all  de- 
cently dressed ;  and  it  is  the  most  heart- cheering 
sight  to  see  them  flock  together  in  crowds  to  the 
house  of  prayer. 

"Mr.  Johnson  has  been  made  an  instrument  of 
incalculable  good  to  this  people.  Under  his  minis- 
try one  hundred  and  sixteen  persons  have  become 


234  APPENDICES 

communicants,  and  one  hundred  and  ten  are  can- 
didates for  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper ;  these 
will  be  received  as  members  of  the  church  of  Christ 
on  Easter  Sunday.  Ho  is  very  particular  in  his 
examination  of  the  people  before  they  are  admitted 
to  the  Lord's  table. 

"  It  may  indeed  be  said  that  'numbers  are  added 
to  the  church  daily ' ;  for  Mr.  Johnson  has  frequently 
live  or  six  in  a  day  coming  to  his  house  to  talk  of 
the  state  of  their  souls,  who  appear  to  be  very  sin- 
cere. During  the  few  days  that  we  have  been  here, 
upward  of  lifty  persons  have  been  to  tell  Mr.  John- 
son of  their  troubles,  wliich  they  confess  in  affect- 
ing terms :  '  My  bad  heart  trouble  me,  me  no  sleep 
all  night}  me  no  peace,  me  know  me  very  wicked, 
but  God  good  too  much  ;  me  t'ank  God  for  what  He 
done  for  my  soul ;  me  want  love  Jesus  more ;  me 
want  to  go  to  Jesus ;  me  know  nothing  else  but  de 
blood  of  Jesus  can  wash  away  my  sin.'  Such  com- 
plaints as  those  from  these  lost  sheep  of  Israel  are 
incessantly  brought  before  their  worthy  pastor, 
who  with  affection  directs  them  to  the  great  Com- 
forter, and  advises  them  to  embrace  that  gospel 
which  is  '  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.' 

*'  0  my  dear  sister,  is  not  this  encouraging  to  all 
Christian  friends  in  England  to  be  doubly  zealous 
and  active  in  their  missionary  exertions  ?  Let  me 
entreat  you  all  to  be  unwearied  in  your  efforts  and 
prayers,  that  all  Africa  may  become  as  Regent's 
Town.  This  is  the  fruit  of  the  gospel.  Oh,  send 
forth  th(;  gospel  and  more  faithful  laborers  into  the 
vineyard  of  the  Lord !  Let  me  again  beg  of  you, 
my  dear  sister,  to  '  pray  and  not  to  faint.'  Let  the 
interests  of  Christ's  kingdom  be  ever  uppermost  in 
your  heart.  Here  is  yet  a  wide  field  for  labor. 
May  the  happy  effect  of  the  gospel  be  felt  by  all 
benighted  Africa,  and  to  God  shall  the  glory  be 
given  forever." 


APPENDICES  235 


APPENDIX  V 

Mr.  Singleton  thus  writes  of  Regent's  Town : 

"  The  population  of  Regent's  Town  is  about  1350 ; 
of  this  number,  700  are  able  to  provide  for  them- 
selves and  families  by  means  of  their  farms.  One 
man  sold  the  produce  of  his  little  spot  last  year  for 
fifty  pounds,  and  the  quantity  of  cassava  sold  then 
was  ten  thousand  bushels. 

"  A  small  market  is  held  each  day,  but  the  sev- 
enth day  is  the  principal  one.  Five  oxen  are  weekly 
consumed,  besides  pork. 

"  The  people,  with  a  few  exceptions,  are  indus- 
trious, as  may  be  seen  by  the  improved  houses 
which  they  build  for  themselves,  by  their  furniture, 
all  of  their  own  making,  and  by  the  neatness  and 
cleanliness  of  their  habitations.  In  several  houses 
are  sofas  covered  with  clean  print  or  the  country 
cloth,  tables  and  forms,  or  chairs ;  and  especially  I 
noticed  in  each  house  a  corner  cupboard  with  its 
appropriate  crockery  ware.  The  beds  and  sleeping- 
rooms  are  remarkably  neat  and  clean.  A  few  of 
the  inhabitants,  more  ingenious  or  richer  than  the 
rest,  are  building  houses  of  board,  with  stores  below 
and  piazza  in  front. 

''The  superintendent  appears  to  have  consider- 
able influence  with  the  people,  and  his  advice  is 
readily  followed. 

"  A  woman  whose  husband  absconded  about  four 
years  since,  and  has  not  been  heard  of  during  that 
time,  asked  the  superintendent  some  time  after  the 
man's  departure  if  she  might  not  marry  again ;  he 
informed  her  that  the  law  of  England  required  a 
period  of  seven  years  before  that  was  allowed.  She 
submitted,  and  to  the  present  has  lived  alone,  main- 
taining herself  and  acting  with  exemplary  propriety. 


236  APPENDICES 

"As  we  were  standing  under  the  piazza  this 
morning  (sixth  day),  a  young  African  came  to  ask 
permission  to  marry.  W.  Johnson  gave  good 
reasons  for  withholding  his  assent,  which  he  had 
scarcely  done  when  he  was  called  away ;  and  I  ad- 
vised the  hesitating  youth  to  acquiesce.  He  readily 
answered :  '  My  massa  good  man.  He  say  girl  too 
young.   We  wait.    I  no  pass  de  word  of  my  massa.' 

''  Returning  from  a  walk  over  one  or  two  of  the 
farms,  and  coming  near  the  market-place,  we  were 
met  by  an  elderly  African,  with  a  basket  on  his  head 
covered  with  a  cloth.  He  stopped,  and,  placing  the 
basket  on  the  ground,  drew  out  a  glass  bottle,  which 
he  held  up  that  the  superintendent  might  see  its 
contents,  and  uttered  a  few  words  which  I  could  not 
understand.  The  bottle  contained  palm-wine ;  and 
the  man  in  his  simplicity  produced  it  uncalled  for, 
to  assure  the  superintendent  that  it  was  not  rum, 
the  use  of  this  liquor  being  prohibited. 

"  Soon  after  breakfast  Captain  Grant  came  in. 
We  visited  the  schools  together.  The  girls  behaved 
with  seriousness,  and  appeared  under  good  care. 
There  was  an  agreeable  solidity  in  their  counte- 
nances which,  I .  hope,  indicated  something  good 
within.  The  boys  were  attentive,  and  tlie  monitors 
active,  as  was  the  case  too  at  Gloucester  and  Kissy. 

"  I  visited  with  satisfaction  the  school  at  Freetown 
and  those  at  several  of  the  villages  in  the  moun- 
tains. At  Regent's  Town  I  remained  two  days,  and 
left  the  family  and  villagers  with  regret.  This  is 
a  favored  place,  and  while  there  I  indulged  in  a 
wish  that  if  the  Friends  should  be  induced  to  com- 
mence a  settlement  on  the  Gambia,  their  success 
might  equal  that  of  the  superintendent  of  Regent's 
Town." 


APPENDICES  237 


APPENDIX   VI 

Mr.  Bacon  published  on  his  return  to  Philadel- 
phia an  account  of  his  visit  to  Africa,  containing 
the  following  sketch  of  Regent's  Town  : 

"  March  17,  1821,  Saturday.  About  one  o'clock 
we  arrived  at  Regent's  Town.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John- 
son had  been  at  Freetown,  where  Mr.  Johnson  was 
sick  several  weeks.  On  oui'  arrival  great  numbers 
of  his  people  came  to  shake  hands  with  him,  and 
inquired  affectionately  after  his  health.  The  ex- 
pression of  every  countenance  bore  strong  testimony 
of  their  ardent  love  for  him,  and  of  the  joy  which 
filled  their  hearts  on  his  recovery  from  sickness  and 
his  safe  return  to  his  flock. 

"At  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  beU  at  the 
church  rang  for  divine  service.  The  people  were 
immediately  seen  walking  from  different  parts  of 
the  town,  the  parsonage  house  being  so  situated 
that  there  is  a  fair  view  of  almost  the  whole  settle- 
ment ;  and  it  was  delightful  to  observe  the  eager- 
ness which  the  people  manifested  to  hear  the  Word 
of  God.  A  prayer-meeting  was  held  by  the  com- 
municants after  the  usual  evening  prayers,  it  being 
expected  that  the  Lord's  Supper  would  be  celebrated 
the  next  day. 

"March  18th,  Sunday.  At  six  o'clock  the  bell 
rang  for  morning  prayers,  when  the  church  was 
again  filled.  How  pleasing  to  behold  hundreds  of 
those  who  were  once  wretched  inmates  of  the  holds 
of  slave-ships  assembled  in  the  house  of  God  on  the 
morning  of  that  holy  day  on  which  our  blessed 
Saviour  rose  from  the  dead  and  ascended  up  to 
heaven !  With  a  hundred  copies  of  the  Holy  Bible 
spread  open  before  their  black  faces,  their  eyes 


238  APPENDICES 

were  fixed  intently  on  the  words  of  the  lesson  which 
their  godly  pastor  was  reading.  Almost  all  Mr. 
Johnson's  people  who  can  read  the  blessed  book  are 
supplied  with  BiV>les  from  that  best  of  institutions, 
the  British  and  Foreign  BiVjle  Society.  Surely 
ChrLstians  ought  to  feel  themselves  encouraged  in 
the  support  of  missions  when  such  cheering  fruits 
j;resent  themselves  to  view  ! 

"At  ten  o'clock  the  bell  again  rang,  though  the 
church  was  nearly  filled  before  that  hour.  The 
members  of  the  well-regulated  schools,  which  passed 
in  review  before  the  parsonage  in  regular  succession, 
were  all  clad  in  clean  and  decent  apparel.  When 
we  arrived  at  the  church  there  were  no  vacant  seats 
to  be  seen.  The  greatest  attention  was  paid  during 
di\'ine  service.  '  Indeed,  I  witnessed  a  Christian 
congregation  in  a  heathen  land— a  people  "fearing 
God  and  working  righteousness."  The  tear  of  godly 
sorrow  rolled  down  many  a  colored  cheek,  and 
showed  the  contrition  of  a  heart  that  felt  its  own 
vileness.'  There  were  three  couples  married  and 
one  child  baptized.  After  the  sermon  Mr.  Johnson, 
with  the  assistance  of  Brother  Andrus,  administered 
the  communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  nearly  four  hundred  communicants. 
This  indeed  was  *  a  feast  of  fat  things '  to  my  soul. 

"  At  three  o'clock  the  church  was  again  filled,  and 
the  most  devout  attention  was  paid  to  the  reading 
and  hearing  of  the  Word.  The  whole  congregation 
seemed  eager  to  cateh  every  word  which  fell  from 
the  pastor's  lips. 

"Again,  before  the  ringing  of  the  bell  at  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  people  were  seen  from 
the  distant  parts- of  the  town  leaving  their  homes, 
and  retracing  their  steps  toward  the  house  of  God. 
There  we  again  united  in  praising  that  God  who 
hath  wrought  such  wonderful  things  even  among 


APPENDICES  239 

the  mountains  of  Sierra  Leone,  where  the  praises 
of  Jehovah  resound  not  only  from  His  holy  sanc- 
tuary, but  from  the  humblest  mud- walled  cottage — 
from  the  tongues  of  those  childi'en  of  Africa  who 
have  been  taken  by  the  avaricious  slave-trader, 
di'agged  from  parents,  separated  from  brother  and 
sister,  and  perhaps  from  wife  or  husband,  bound  in 
chains,  hurried  on  board  the  slave-ship,  crowded  in 
a  space  not  exceeding  their  length  and  breadth,  nor 
even  allowed  to  breathe  the  \dtal  air.  These  per- 
sons, after  being  recaptured  by  order  of  the  British 
government,  have  been  put  under  the  charge  of  a 
faithful  minister  of  the  gospel,  whose  labors  have 
been  accompanied  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  These  are 
the  mighty  works  of  God." 


APPENDIX  VII 

The  original  memoir  of  Johnson  thus  impressively 
concludes : 

"And  now  we  bring  our  narrative  to  a  close. 
The  lessons  it  teaches  are  many ;  but  two  or  three 
thoughts  more  immediatel}^  present  themselves. 

"  The  first  is,  the  sovereignty  and  power  which 
mark  certain  of  the  di^'ine  operations. 

"  It  was  remarked  a  few  years  since  by  an  aged 
and  thoughtful  minister :  *  We  do  the  best  we  can 
to  raise  up  a  succession  of  faithful  ministers  of  the 
gospel.  We  look  out  for  young  men  of  promise- 
men  whose  hearts  God  seems  to  have  touched ;  we 
put  them  under  instruction ;  we  make  them  theo- 
logians and  preachers ;  and  thus  whatever  is  in  our 
power  we  do,  and  in  so  doing  we  act  rightly;  no 
other  course  is  open  to  us.     To  a  certain  degree  we 


240  APPENDICES 

succeed,  though  we  often  have  to  mourn  over  grie- 
vous disappointments.  But  now  and  then  it  pleases 
God  to  take  the  work  into  His  own  hands.  He 
raises  up  a  man,  and  makes  him  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel  by  His  own  especial  teaching,  and  then  we 
behold  a  very  different  sort  of  minister  from  any 
that  human  efforts  or  human  skill  can  produce.' 

"The  truth  of  this  remark,  which  was  uttered 
long  before  either  of  these  remarkable  men  had 
been  given  to  the  Christian  church,  has  since  been 
made  strikingly  evident  in  the  histories  of  Williams 
and  of  Johnson.  No  two  individuals  in  modern 
times  have  been  so  honored  of  God  in  the  mission- 
ary work  as  were  these  two  men,  and  none  could  be 
more  evidently  prepared  by  Himself  for  the  work. 

"It  was  in  the  year  1816— a  year  which  will  be 
ever  memorable  in  the  angelic  annals— that  the 
mission  of  these  two  men  was  commanded.  An 
eminent  prelate  of  our  church  once  compared  Mr. 
Williams's  narratives  with  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,* 
and  under  such  sanction  we  cannot  hesitate  to  say 
that,  as  in  a.d.  45  (Acts  xiii,  2)  so  in  a.d.  1816,  '  the 
Holy  Ghost  said,  Separate  Me  Johnson  and  Williams 
for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them.'  And 
what  was  that  work  ?  It  was  one  as  absolutely  be- 
yond all  human  power  as  was  the  subjection  of  the 
Roman  empire  to  the  sway  of  Him  who  was  cruci- 
fied on  Calvary. 

"Two  regions  of  the  earth  were  preeminently 
reigned  over  by  the  Evil  One.  In  Airica,  among 
the  degraded  race  of  Ham,  the  slave-trade  had  done 
its  work  in  crushing,  brutalizing,  exterminating, 
while  their  religion  was  avowedly  deinl-ivorsMp.  In 
Polynesia  some  of  the  most  lovely  spots  on  the  earth 
were  becoming  depopulated  by  vice  and  unnatural 

*  The  late  Bishop  of  Eipon,  who  called  these  narratives 
the  "twenty-ninth  chapter  of  the  Acts."— A.  T.  P. 


APPENDICES  241 

cruelty.  Mothers  slept  calmly  on  beds  beneath 
which  they  had  buried  many  of  their  own  murdered 
infants.  Over  these  two  regions  Satan  ruled  su- 
preme, and  his  kingdom  of  hell  was  almost  visibly 
established.  To  overthrow  that  dominion  it  pleased 
God  to  send  forth  two  young  men— not  a  phalanx 
of  learned  theologians  or  well-taught  divines  or 
clever  and  astute  philosophers,  but  two  men  of  no 
learning,  possessing  only  a  scanty  measure  of  the 
most  ordinary  instruction.  There  cannot  be  a 
doubt  that  this  was  ordered  as  in  the  apostle's  day : 
'After  that  .  .  .  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not 
God,  it  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching 
to  save  them  that  believe.  .  .  .  Because  the  fool- 
ishness of  God  is  wiser  than  men ;  and  the  weakness 
of  God  is  stronger  than  men'  (1  Cor.  i.  21,  25). 

"  Had  the  event  proved  otherwise,  the  directors 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society  would  have  been 
deemed  by  many  to  have  laid  themselves  open  to 
censm-e.  John  Williams  had  not  arrived  at  the  age 
of  manhood  when  he  was  sent  forth,  and  his  previous 
instruction  had  occupied  but  a  few  short  months. 

"  As  to  William  Johnson,  he  had  been  a  mechanic ; 
had  been  placed  in  the  National  Society's  training- 
school  for  a  single  twelvemonth,  and  was  sent  forth 
by  the  Church  Missionary  Society  to  labor  in  West 
Africa  as  a  schoolmaster.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
neither  of  these  societies  had  an  idea,  when  they 
sent  forth  these  young  men  with  far  less  than  the 
ordinary  preparation,  what  important  instruments, 
in  the  hand  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  were  then  dis- 
missing to  their  labors. 

"  But,  though  called  to  the  work  at  about  the  same 
period  and  sent  forth  in  the  same  year,  and  resem- 
bling each  other  greatly  in  their  previous  histories, 
there  was  a  wide  difference  in  the  two  spheres  of 
labor  for  which  they  were  destined,  and  there  was 


242  ylPPENDICES 

a  similar  difference  in  the  character  of  their  minds. 
He  who  'knew  what  was  in  man/  and  who  'fash- 
ioneth  the  clay  like  a  potter/  gave  to  Polynesia  the 
conqueror  and  civilizer,  Williams,  and  to  oppressed 
Africa  the  sympathizing  consoler  and  preacher, 
Johnson.  The  same  gospel  dwelt  in  the  hearts  and 
on  the  lips  of  each,  but  the  outward  circumstances 
of  their  respective  missions  were  very  different. 
Mr.  Williams's  lot  was  cast  in  a  land 

'  Where  every  prospect  pleases, 
And  only  man  is  vile.' 

Luxury,  indolence,  and  luxurious  vice  were  the  foes 
with  which  he  had  to  wrestle,  Wliat  a  picture  of 
the  native  opulence  of  those  regions  is  given  by  the 
single  fact  that  the  people  of  one  of  those  islands, 
few  in  number,  were  able,  when  really  awakened  to 
their  duty,  to  send  home  to  the  parent  society  in  one 
year  a  contribution  of  the  value  of  eighteen  hundred 
pounds ! 

"  It  is  no  detraction  from  the  merits  of  Mr.  Wil- 
liams to  remark  that  Mr.  Johnson,  placed  in  more 
painful  and  difficult  circumstances,  shines  under 
these  circumstances  with  a  still  brighter  light.  Ease 
and  luxury,  sunny  climes  and  softeningatmospheres, 
are  not  those  which  are  most  favorable  to  Christian 
heroism.  Multitudes  of  predecessors  in  the  mis- 
sionary work  had  sunk  under  these  temptations,  and 
had  failed  in  the  same  undertaking  in  which  Mr. 
Wilhams  so  remarkably  succeeded.  The  difficulties 
which  surrounded  Mr.  Johnson  were  of  a  different 
class.  The  climate,  it  is  true,  was  in  each  case  un- 
favorable to  vigorous  effort ;  but,  while  surrounding 
circumstances  in  Polynesia  almost  resembled  those 
of  Bunyan's  '  enchanted  ground,'  the  case  of  a  mis- 
sionary in  western  Africa  was  widely  different. 
Despondency  might  cooperate  with  a  relaxing  cli- 


APPENDICES  243 

mate,  a.nd  so  produce  a  despairing  inertness ;  biit  as- 
suredly everything  around  was  replete  with  pamtui 
sights  and  dread-iuspiring  alarms.  Poverty,  degra- 
dation, physical  and  moral  wretchedness  among  the 
people,  conspired,  with  frequent  sickness  and  death 
among  the  laborers,  to  throw  the  missionary  upon 
his  God  as  his  only  refuge  and  strength,  '  a  very 
present  help  in  time  of  trouble.'  And  whe.n  this  re- 
sult was  produced,  the  effect  was  naturaUy  most 
salutary.     It  recalled  Cowper's  lines : 

'For  He  who  knew  what  human  hearts  would  prove,— 
How  slow  to  learn  the  dictates  of  His  love ; 
That,  hard  by  nature  and  of  stubborn  will, 
A  life  of  ease  would  make  them  harder  still,— 
In  pity  to  the  souls  His  grace  designed 
To  rescue  from  the  ruins  of  mankind, 
Called  for  a  cloud  to  darken  all  their  years, 
And  said,  "Go,  spend  them  in  the  vale  of  tears. 

"  The  general  effect,  then,  of  these  differing  cir- 
cumstances was,  that  while  both  these  eminent  men 
preached  the  same  gospel,  and  with  the  same  sim- 
plicity and  faithfulness,  the  results  were  modihed 
by  external  influences.     In  Mr.  WilUams's  case  we 
find  large  and  rapid  successes ;  in  Mr.  Johnson's, 
more  limited  but  perhaps  more  deeply  spiritual  con- 
versions.    We  remark  the  difference  not  m  depre- 
ciation of  Mr.  WilUams's  labors ;  had  he  been  placed 
in  Mr.  Johnson's  circumstances  he  would  probably 
have  been  what  Mr.  Johnson  was ;  while  Mr.  John- 
son, in  Polynesia,  would  have  proved  liimself  an- 
other WiUiams.     '  But  all  these  worketh  that  one 
and  the  selfsame  Spirit,  dividing  to  every  man 
severally  as  He  wiU'  (1  Cor.  xii.  11).     Nor  must 
the  reader  forget,  in  comparing  these  two  eminently 
successful  missionaries,  that  Mr.  Williams's  course 
was  prolonged  to  more  than  two  and  twenty  years, 
while  Mr.  Johnson's  ended  in  less  than  seven. 


244  APPENDICES 

"  A  second  remark  whicli  naturally  sug:gests  itself 
is  this :  that  when  God  speaks  to  any  man  diredhj, 
as  He  spoke  to  William  Johnson,  the  speech  of  that 
man  to  his  fellow-sinners  will  often  be  found  to  be 
similarly  direct  and  effective. 

"  Johnson  was  awakened  and  called  '  out  of  dark- 
ness into  marvelous  light'  without  human  instru- 
mentality. By  the  Holy  Ghost,  working  with  con- 
spiring circumstances,  his  heart  was  penetrated. 
The  preacher's  part  which  followed  was  only  to 
administer  comfort  and  to  point  to  Christ.  And 
when  so  built  upon  the  only  sure  foundation,  and 
made  desirous  of  spreading  the  knowledge  of  sal- 
vation, it  is  most  worthy  of  remark  that  he  could 
scarcely  open  his  mouth  without  some  one  being 
stricken  to  the  heart.  The  proofs  of  the  directness 
and  effective  character  of  his  preaching  pervade  his 
whole  history.  The  '  live  coal  from  the  altar '  evi- 
dently had  '  touclied  his  lips,'  and  his  speech  was 
*  with  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  with  power.' 

"  One  more  observation  must  be  made,  though 
with  fear  and  trembling.  In  the  short  but  emi- 
nently successful  career  of  Mr.  Johnson,  we  see 
how  practicable  it  is  to  unite  a  burning  zeal  with  a 
sound  judgment,  and  how  excellently  the  two  com- 
bine to  form  the  able  minister  of  the  gospel. 

"In  the  present  day,  prudence  and  caution  and 
decorum  are  more  common  than  fervency  and  ear- 
nest zeal ;  and  hence  it  follows  that  any  overflow- 
ing of  earnestness  is  almost  sure  to  be  checked 
and  reproved,  as  'bordering  on  enthusiasm.'  It 
was  so  in  Mr.  Jolmson's  case.  His  very  first  stej) 
in  liis  public  duty  exposed  him  to  such  a  check ; 
but  a  review  of  his  whole  course  presents  him  in 
the  light  of  one  who  merely  felt  and  acted  in  the 
spirit  of  St.  Paul.  He  was  willing  to  be  'made  aU 
things  to  all  men,  that  he  might  by  all  means  save 


APPENDICES  246 

some.'  He  was  '  instant  in  season,  out  of  season^ 
reproving,  rebuking,  exhorting  with  all  long-suffer- 
ing and  doctrine.'  But  he  was  ever  watchful, 
humble,  desirous  to  receive  the  counsel  of  his  elders, 
and  prompt  in  obeying  it.  He  kept  an  even  course 
between  the  urgency  of  the  governor,  on  the  one 
hand,  desirous  of  a  general  admission  into  the 
church,  and  the  apprehensions,  on  the  other,  of 
'that  fearful  Tamba,  dreading  that  the  church 
would  be  filled  with  hypocrites.'  The  soundness 
of  his  judgment  and  the  wisdom  of  his  course  are 
seen  in  the  rapid  disappearance  of  disorder,  and  the 
perpetual  increase  of  his  influence  over  his  people. 
Not  by  mere  priestly  pretensions,  but  by  the  legiti- 
mate sway  of  mind  over  mind  and  heart  over  heart, 
he  won  his  way,  till  toward  the  close  of  his  course 
the  control  exercised  by  him  seemed  all  that  a  pastor 
could  desire.  It  is  not  indeed  to  be  doubted  that, 
as  in  the  apostolic  churches,  so  in  Regent's  Town, 
the  enemy  was  sedulously  employed  in  sowing 
tares  among  the  wheat.  We  have  already  seen 
that  within  a  few  weeks  after  his  departure  the 
temptation  of  ardent  spirits  crept  in.  If  we  had 
pursued  the  story  still  later,  we  might  have  met 
with  the  sad  story  of  a  quarrel,  ending  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  some  of  the  Regent's  Town  communi- 
cants, as  criminals,  before  a  magistrate.  But  the 
counterpart  of  all  this  had  been  written  before,  in 
St.  Paul's  and  St.  Peter's  epistles  (2  Cor.  xii.  21 ;  2 
Pet.  ii.  18-22).  And  the  best  criterion  of  Mr.  John- 
son's having  followed  Paul,  as  Paul  followed  his 
Master,  is  that  his  whole  narrative  bears  the  closest 
resemblance  to  the  apostle's  own  experience,  as  we 
find  it  depicted  in  his  various  epistles. 

''  Such  is  the  work  of  God,  carried  on  by  a  few 
of  His  people,  for  'accomplishing  the  number  of 
His  elect  and  hastening  His  kingdom.'     Let  us 


246  APPENDICES 

compare  it,  for  a  few  moments,  with  some  of  the 
works  of  man. 

"  And  the  contrast  which  first  and  most  naturally 
presents  itself  is  that  of  such  a  mission  as  Regent's 
Town  with  the  missions  of  Rome. 

"All  the  missions  of  which  Rome  boasts  have 
been  enterprises  begun  and  carried  on  within  the 
last  three  centuries.  And  wliatever  the  Roman 
Church  might  have  been  in  earlier  times,  we  beheve 
that  from  the  Reformation  downward,  at  least,  it 
has  been  apostate,  and  its  works,  therefore,  the 
works  of  fallen  man  and  not  of  God.  Let  us  com- 
pare those  works  with  a  Protestant  mission  such  as 
that  of  Regent's  Town. 

"  We  have  here  the  narrative  of  a  plain  and  simple 
mechanic,  educated  but  scantily  for  a  schoolmaster 
of  poor  li])erated  negroes,  but  who,  in  the  course  of 
his  labors,  speaking  of  Christ  to  thorn,  becomes  the 
means  of  building  up  an  extensive  Christian  church. 
Very  soon  we  find  him  assembling  fifteen  hundred 
people  together,  Sunday  by  Sunday,  adnutting  four 
hundred  of  them  to  the  Lord's  table,  and  educating 
one  thousand  in  schools.  The  reality  of  the  work 
is  shown  by  its  endurance.  After  much  adversity 
and  many  discouragements  long  continued,  Re- 
gent's Town  at  this  moment  r(goices  in  the  Chris- 
tian church  which  was  founded  by  William  Johnson. 
From  that  church  many  redeemed  souls  have  joined 
the  blessed  company  in  paradise.  Now  a  parallel 
to  all  this  may  be  found  in  other  Christian  missions, 
such  as  those  of  Mr.  Williams,  already  alluded  to, 
the  churches  gathered  by  the  Moravians  in  diflPeroiit 
countries,  and  the  churches  now  multiplying  in 
Tinnevelly.  But  is  the  like  to  be  found  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  papal  church  ?  There  are  iutlocd  largo 
records  of  their  successes,  and  we  believe  that,  at 
various  periods,  the  missionaries  of  Rome  in  divers 


APPENDICES  247 

countries  have  succeeded  in  hnptizmg  great  numbers. 
To  baptize  myi-iads  of  ignorant  and  unconverted 
heathens,  however,  if  this  be  all,  is  a  mere  delusion. 
Has  there  been,  among  the  annals  of  Romish  mis- 
sions, a  single  instance  resembling  that  of  Regent's 
Town  in  its  reality  —  a  single  instance,  we  mean, 
of  a  Christian  congregation  not  only  haptized,  but 
brought  into  the  habits,  feelings,  and  tempers  of 
the  Christian  life  ?  We  have  met  with  no  such  his- 
tory, and  we  doubt  if  such  a  one  exists. 

"  I3ut  we  may  pass  from  the  counterfeit  Christian- 
ity of  apostate  Rome  to  the  other  religions  of 
mankind.  Do  we  find  among  them  anything  re- 
sembling a  genuine  Christian  mission,  either  in  its 
self-sacrifice  or  in  its  wondrous  results  ? 

"  'Look  at  the  spirit  of  aggression  which  charac- 
terizes this  religion,  its  undeniable  power  to  prompt 
those  who  hold  it  to  render  it  victorious— a  spirit 
which  has  not  been  least  active  in  our  own  time. 
We  do  not  see  anything  like  this  in  other  religions. 
We  do  not  see  mollas  from  Ispahan,  Brahmans 
from  Benares,  bonzes  from  China,  preaching  their 
systems  of  religion  in  London,  Paris,  and  Berlin, 
supported,  year  after  year,  by  an  enormous  expen- 
diture on  the  part  of  their  zealous  compatriots,  and 
the  nations  who  support  them  taking  the  liveliest 
interest  in  their  success  or  failure.'  *  In  fact,  it  is 
Christianity  alone  which  professes  to  have  received 
a  divine  command  to  '  go  and  teach  all  nations ' ; 
and  it  is  only  Christianity  which  acts  upon  such  an 
injunction. 

"Isolate,  for  a  moment,  the  case  of  Regent's 
Town,  and  let  it  be  regarded  with  close  attention. 
Here  is  a  single  man  but  just  escaped  from  a  Lon- 
don workshop,  employed  in  organizing,  civilizing, 
and  humanizing  a  large  body  of  rescued  slaves,  of 
*  «  The  Eclipse  of  Faith,"  p.  218. 


248  APPENDICES 

a  different  race  and  of  various  other  tongues.  In 
a  wonderfully  short  space  of  time  he  so  gains  the 
affections  of  these  poor  savages  that  a  large  Chris- 
tian village  arises  almost  as  if  by  magic.  Streets 
and  gardens,  a  church  and  schools,  fields  and  farm- 
yards, are  occupied  and  cultivated  by  hundi-eds  of 
willing  hearts  and  liands.  At  once,  without  any  delay, 
a  congregation  of  redeemed  and  saved  men  and 
women  is  seen.  The  church  is  filled  to  overflow- 
ing ;  the  schools  are  crowded  with  eager  learners ; 
hundreds  press  forward  to  beg  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Christian  sacraments ;  meanwhile,  industry  and 
its  fruits  abound  on  every  side,  and  purity  of  morals 
such  as  no  Englisli  village  knows  universally  pre- 
vails. Such  are  the  results  of  even  three  or  four 
years'  labor ;  may  we  not  reasonably  ask,  Wlien  did 
the  religion  of  Rome  or  of  the  East,  or  when  did 
the  philanthropy  of  rationalistic  philosophers,  pro- 
duce such  a  wondrous  transformation  as  this  ? 

"  It  is  well  that  men  should  thoroughly  under- 
stand that  Christianity  is  alone  in  tlieworld  as  a 
religion.  There  is  no  other  faith  which  even  pre- 
tends to  be  made  for  mankind;  and  there  is  no 
other  the  adherents  to  which  make  any  attempt  to 
diffuse  it  among  mankind.  The  reason  is  easily 
discernible.  The  various  forms  of  heathenism  have 
all  one  original  and  one  patron :  they  constitute 
different  provinces  of  the  one  kingdom  of  '  the  god 
of  this  world.'  They  do  not  make  war  upon  each 
other,  for  '  if  Satan  be  divided  against  Satan,  how 
shall  his  kingdom  stand  ? '  But  with  the  religion 
of  Christ  the  case  is  wholly  different.  Five  hun- 
dred years  before  it  was  distinctly  manifested,  a 
prophet  was  inspired  to  foretell  that  after  the  As- 
syrian, Persian,  Macedonian,  and  Roman  empires  a 
totally  different  power  should  arise— 'a  stone,  cut 
out  without  hands,  which  should  become  a  great 


/iPPENDICES  249 

mountain,  and  should  fill  the  whole  earth.'  And 
Christ  Himself,  when  departing  from  the  earth  for 
a  season,  said  to  His  disciples,  '  All  power  is  given 
unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Go  ye  therefore, 
and  teach  all  nations.' 

"This  command  was  given  eighteen  hundi-ed 
years  ago,  in  the  land  of  Palestine,  and  it  was  ad- 
dressed to  a  few  poor  fishermen  and  artisans.  And 
in  this  nineteenth  century,  lamentably  as  the  in- 
junction has  been  neglected,  we  still  see  several 
hundreds  of  men  traversing,  like  Johnson  and  Wil- 
liams, different  regions  of  the  earth,  braving  the 
pestilence  here  and  the  club  of  the  savage  there,  and 
even  rejoicing  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  such  a 
cause. 

"  The  prediction,  the  command,  and  the  fact  which 
are  at  tliis  moment  before  our  eyes,  should  all  be 
taken  in  connection  ;  and  if  this  be  done,  the  sincere 
seeker  after  truth  will  find  that  which  admits  of  but 
one  reasonable  solution. 

"  But  let  us  for  a  moment  take  a  still  larger  view, 
and  compare  the  narrative  we  have  just  closed  with 
the  works  and  ways  of  men  in  general,  taking  for 
the  stronger  argument  men  in  their  most  civilized 
and  humanized  condition. 

"  What  are  the  thoughts  and  pursuits  of  men  in 
society,  even  if  we  look  chiefly  to  the  most  refined 
and  humanized  of  the  species— nay,  even  to  men 
associated  together  in  Christian  churches?  Are 
they  not  bent,  for  the  most  part,  either  on  the  ac- 
quisition of  money,  or  on  the  pursuit  of  what  is 
called  pleasure  ?  fakin  g  even  the  more  respectable 
and  moral  classes  apart  from  the  rest,  do  we  not 
find  that  either  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  or  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  things  procured  by  wealth,  is  the  one 
predominant  idea  ? 

"  What  a  contrast  is  furnished  by  the  memoir  we 


250  APPENDICES 

are  closing!  A  most  active  and  energetic  mind, 
engaged  for  seven  years  in  one  engrossing  pursuit, 
and  that  pursuit  so  far  above  the  sordid  aims  of 
men  in  general,  that  his  letters,  journals,  and  re- 
ports for  a  long  series  of  years  may  be  searched, 
and  not  a  thought  connected  with  self,  selfish  gains, 
or  selfish  enjoyments  wiU  be  found.  As,  in  para- 
dise of  old,  and  in  the  paradise  yet  to  be  revealed, 
all  thoughts  of  such  things  would  seem  absurd,  re- 
volting, and  out  of  place,  so,  in  the  higher  atmo- 
sphere to  which  Johnson  had  attained,  he  seems  to 
have  left  such  thoughts  behind.  He  had  his  '  food 
and  raiment '  provided  for  him,  and  he  had  his  work 
to  do ;  that  done,  there  only  remained  the  blessed 
termination :  *  God  calls  me,  and  this  night  I  shall 
be  with  Him.' 

"  It  is  true  that  some  few  cases  of  less  selfish  and 
sordid  views  and  feelings  do  now  and  then  occur  in 
the  world  at  large.  One  higher  and  nobler  aspect 
of  human  labors  and  human  ambition  has  been 
presented  in  the  most  emphatic  way  while  these 
closing  pages  were  passing  through  the  press.  All 
that  human  nature  in  its  noblest  and  best  condition 
could  offer  has  just  passed  before  us,  in  the  person 
of  the  greatest  warrior  of  Europe,  now  on  his  way 
to  his  last  earthly  resting-place.*  Let  us  honor,  as 
David  honored  Abner,  the  memory  of  one  of  the 
powerful  of  the  earth,  who  acknowledged  heaven's 
law,  subjection,  and  knew  it  to  be  his  safest  and 
wisest  course  to  follow  only  the  dictates  of  duti/. 
But  while  we  rejoice  in  such  an  example,  let  us 
rightly  appreciate  the  sphere  and  character  of  his 
labors.  The  noblest  of  his  kind,  still  that  kind  was 
not  the  highest.  The  warrior  has  to  do  witli  eartli 
only;  the  preacher  of  the  gospel  has  to  do  witli 

*  The  reference  is  to  the  Duke  of  Wellino^ton,  who  died 
September  14,  1852,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


APPENDICES  251 

heaven  So  long  as  our  present  condition  lasts, 
which  will  be  but  a  few  years  longer,  Waterloo 
will  be  one  of  earth's  most  thrilling  names.  It  de- 
cided the  fate  of  empires ;  it  gave  Europe  'rest  for 
forty  years.'  But  when  the  transitory  thmgs  ot 
the  present  world  shall  have  vanished,  and  the  real 
and  eternal  shaU  rise  in  then-  proper  form  and  con- 
sistency, then  Waterloo  and  Agincourt  and  Mara- 
thon will  be  remembered  only  with  wonder  and 
with  pity,  while  such  names  as  Bethelsdorp,  Raia- 
teia,  and  Regent's  Town  will  be  '  had  in  everlasting 
remembrance.' 

"What  is  the  brightest  hope  held  out  m  Irods 
Word  to  the  truest  and  most  faithful  of  His  ser- 
vants! We  know,  indeed,  that  salvation  is  the 
common  hope  of  all ;  that  to  be  admitted  '  withm 
the  gates  of  the  city '  is  the  humble  trust  of  every 
believer.  But  our  Lord  has  said,  '  In  My  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions.'  His  apostle  adds  that 
'  one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory.'  The 
meaning  of  the  gospel  parable  is  not  dubious,  which 
relates  that  the  king  rewarded  his  servants  with 
authority  over  two  cities,  over  five,  or  over  ten, 
according  to  their  previous  success  in  his  serAdce. 
Now  the  most  glorious  promise  of  future  bUss  that 
is  to  be  found  in  Holy  Scripture  is  that  which  de- 
clares that  'they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the 
brightness  of  the  firmament ;  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness,  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever.' 

''Behold,  then,  a  poor  mechanic,  laboring  m 
Whitechapel,  '  almost  naked  and  in  want  of  food.' 
God  suddenly,  without  any  human  aid,  'speaks  to 
his  heart.'  *  At  once  does  he  respond  to  the  call ; 
at  once  does  he  spring  '  out  of  darkness  into  mar- 
velous light.'  Soon  after,  he  hears  of  the  wretched 
state  of  the  heathen,  and  he  steps  forward  with 
*  Hos.  ii.  14,  margin. 


252  APPENDICES 

'  Here  am  I ;  send  me.'  He  is  sent,  and  for  seven 
years  each  month's  labor  is  a  visible  inroad  on  the 
kingdom  of  Satan.  All  that  he  does,  whether  in 
teaching  or  exhorting  or  mthstanding  error,  is  done 
with  the  whole  heart.  His  success  is  almost  with- 
out a  precedent.  Doubtless  a  whole  company  of 
redeemed  souls  went  before  him  to  paradise.  The 
church  built  up  by  him  in  six  short  years,  although 
long  aflQicted  and  left  destitute,  endured,  and  is  a 
living  and  thriving  church  at  this  day.  Its  candle- 
stick remains,  a  light  to  all  western  Africa.  And 
what  of  its  founder  ?  Gone,  to  shine  '  as  the  stars 
for  ever  and  ever ' !  Few,  when  seated  in  '  heavenly 
places,'  far  above  myriads  of  the  learned,  the 
wealthy,  the  honored,  and  the  powerful  of  the 
Christian  church— few,  very  few,  will  cry  louder 
than  he,  'O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God !  how  unsearchable 
are  His  judgments,  and  His  ways  past  finding 
out!'" 


I 


DATE  DUE 

^^•isi-^^gs^it^rsiet^ 

.T'et^am     < 

'*"***Mfc. 

^    JWl" 

MriMH 

Trv- 

\ 

— -^f^'^C 

\ 

DE&^ 

^fe^ 

^'*Ji*«Ml 

\ 

fit  ^^•m^'^Qi3L 

DEMCO  38-297 

BW9290.P62 

Seven  years  in  Sierra  Leone;  the  story 

■  hm'."m!'°".I?^°'?^'"'  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00019  0498 


iLnuiiu^rroiit' 


